grande dame
Americannoun
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a usually elderly woman of dignified or aristocratic bearing.
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a woman who is the doyenne of a specific field.
a grande dame of the American theater.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of grande dame
1735–45; < French: literally, great lady
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Today’s glass and steel tower over the bones of what was once the grande dame of colonial luxury, the Hong Kong Hotel.
From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2025
And what kind of relationship will he have with Megawati Sukarnoputri, the grande dame of Indonesian politics and leader of the largest party, the PDIP?
From BBC ● Feb. 15, 2024
José Kuri, a founder of Mexico City’s landmark gallery Kurimanzutto, recently referred to her as “the grande dame of Brazilian art.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2023
You may know the name Dale Chihuly, but have you heard of Ginny Ruffner, the grande dame of Seattle glass art?
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 19, 2023
They were boarding a train for Oxford to meet Dorothy Hodgkin, the grande dame of crystallography.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
