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.

Until her death last year, Helen Vendler was one of the grandes dames of American letters.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 26, 2025

The grandes dames of British theatre reminisced about their lives and careers, with searing honesty and humility.

From BBC • Jan. 17, 2025

Friends since the ‘90s, two of rock’s grandes dames gather to discuss Faithfull’s new album, “She Walks in Beauty,” and their near-death experiences in 2020.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2021

But I warn you now: You’ll have to have patience for her occasional name-checking of people like Judith Butler and Gayatri Spivak and other grandes dames of the poststructuralist and postcolonialist canon.

From New York Times • May 22, 2016

The thing for grandes dames to do is to go down to the House and be present at opening of fresh tourney round Home Rule Bill.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, July 1, 1914 by Seaman, Owen, Sir