blond

[ blond ]

adjective

, blond·er, blond·est.

1. (of hair, skin, etc.) light-colored:

   the child's soft blond curls.

2. (of a person) having light-colored hair and skin.
3. (of furniture wood) light in tone.

noun

1. a blond person.
2. silk lace, originally unbleached but now often dyed any of various colors, especially white or black.

blond

/ blɒnd /

adjective

1. (of men's hair) of a light colour; fair
2. (of a person, people or a race) having fair hair, a light complexion, and, typically, blue or grey eyes
3. (of soft furnishings, wood, etc) light in colour

noun

1. a person, esp a man, having light-coloured hair and skin

Usage

Although blond and blonde correspond to masculine and feminine forms in French, this distinction is not consistently made in English. Blonde is the commoner form both as a noun and an adjective, and is more frequently used to refer to women than men. The less common variant blond occurs usually as an adjective, occasionally as a noun, and is the preferred form when referring to men with fair hair

Spelling Note

See blonde.

Derived Forms

• ˈblondness, noun

Other Words From

• blondness noun
• blondish adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of blond¹

First recorded in 1475–85; from Middle French blonde “blond, light brown,” feminine of blond, from Germanic; akin to Old English blondenfeax “gray-haired,” Latin flāvus “yellow” ( flavo- )

Word History and Origins

Origin of blond¹

C15: from Old French blond , probably of Germanic origin; related to Late Latin blundus yellow, Italian biondo , Spanish blondo

Example Sentences

Barker’s rendering of Candyman was a pale, oddly dressed blond man.

From Vox

I say this as a woman who’s gone from a glam rock-size cloud of dark curls to short blond hair, to long red hair, and who knows what next.

From Time

A small blond girl on the grade-school playground ran up and told me to look at my nails.

From Washington Post

The one my maternal grandmother made was thick and featured chickpea-flour fritters, while on my dad’s side, it would be thinner, blond and slightly sweet, studded with mustard seeds.

From Ozy

Swift signed to Big Machine Records in 2005, a fresh-faced Nashville singer with a guitar and long blond hair.

From Time

After years at the head of a parochial school classroom, he could no longer distinguish one blond Irish Catholic kid from another.

From The Daily Beast

Coren, a striking blond with an authoritative manner and a deep voice, stayed with the story all night and well into the next day.

From The Daily Beast

There were little blond girls in knit hats next to elderly African American women hobbling on canes.

From The Daily Beast

Casa Bruja's Fula Farmacia Blond Ale sells for $1.95 at Bodega Mi Amiga.

From The Daily Beast

I order a pint a Fula Farmacia, Casa Bruja's 4.7 percent Blond Ale.

From The Daily Beast

She was enveloped in a sky-blue satin gown, or rather, sort of blouse, ornamented all round with two rows of rich black blond.

From Project Gutenberg

He had close-cropped blond hair and pretty blue eyes and he was a very tough boy.

From Project Gutenberg

The Nordic race is, like the Iberian, long-headed, but in contrast it is blond and very tall.

From Project Gutenberg

And greenish among the stubble, upon a spear of blond barley, with a double row of seeds, I saw a prègo-diéu.

From Project Gutenberg

He was suddenly aware of his thankfulness for the companionship of this tall, blond youngster.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• bleached
• blonde
• golden

Blond Vs. Blonde

What’s the difference between blond and blonde?

Blond and blonde are both adjectives most commonly used to describe the color of light or yellowish hair or someone who has such hair. They can also both be used as nouns referring to a person with such hair, as in Should I make this character a blond or a redhead? 

They are pronounced exactly the same. But there is a difference: the spelling blonde is typically used in a gender-specific way to refer to or describe women and girls with this hair color. In contrast, the use of blond in a gender-neutral way is very common. And when the word is used as an adjective, this spelling is much more commonly used, regardless of the gender of the person whose hair color is being described.

Blond and blonde derive from French, which has grammatical gender, meaning that some words end differently depending on whether they are applied to men or women (with e being the feminine ending). This happens in a few other pairs of words in English, like confidant and confidante, though in many cases the term without the e has become largely gender-neutral. This is the case with blond, which is the more commonly used of the two.

When describing the colors of things other than hair, such as wood or coffee, only the spelling blond is used.

When in doubt, remember that the spelling blond is appropriate in all cases.

Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between blond and blonde.

Quiz yourself on blond vs. blonde!

True or False? 

The spelling blond is only ever applied to men and boys.