fiancée

American  

[fee-ahn-sey, fee-ahn-sey] / ˌfi ɑnˈseɪ, fiˈɑn seɪ /

Or fiancee

noun

fiancées plural

1. a woman engaged to be married.

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fiancée British  

/ fɪˈɒnseɪ /

noun

1. a woman who is engaged to be married

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Gender

When French words describe or name people, they are inflected to match the gender of the person. To mark a noun or adjective as feminine, French adds an unaccented letter e at the end of a word. If the person engaged to be married is a man, he’s a fiancé . The bride-to-be is a fiancée . This distinction is usually preserved in English language use of these words: fiancé for a man, fiancée for a woman. However, it is also common for borrowed words to lose some foreign characteristics. This is why, for example, words like cliché , fiancée , or résumé may be written in English without accent marks. Such an omission in French would be an error, resulting in the wrong pronunciation of these words, but in English, it is acceptable to lose this foreign feature. Similarly, some English speakers will completely drop the gender agreement in the fiancé — fiancée distinction, using fiancé for both men and women. The prescriptive rules of English grammar do not encourage the reduction to a single form, though it is a natural phenomenon for words borrowed into English to neutralize gender markings. The adjective née presents a slightly different case. The feminine inflection of this French word is the commonly borrowed form, since women are usually the ones to distinguish their maiden names from their married ones. However, the masculine form né would be the appropriate one for a man in reference to his original last name, in the increasingly common event of the groom’s name changing with his marriage. The spelling with the extra e is the marked feminine form and should be used to name or describe a woman: née , divorcée , fiancée . If you choose to spell these French words with their accents, be sure to place them correctly. For words ending in ée, the accented é is the first of the two.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• fiancées
  plural

Etymology

Origin of fiancée

First recorded in 1850–55; from French; feminine of fiancé

Explanation

A fiancée is a woman engaged to be married. On the Muppet Show, Miss Piggy was Kermit's fiancée and covered him in kisses. A fiancée is a woman engaged to be married; a man engaged to be married is a fiancé — two "e"s for a woman, one for a man — according to French spelling conventions. Fiancée, from mid-19th century French, means "a woman to whom one is betrothed" and is linked to the noun fiance, which refers to "a promise." In other words, a bride-to-be is promised to a groom-to-be, and vice versa.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fiancée fiancées

A court-appointed monitor accused Fain of abusing his power to benefit his fiancée, an allegation now under investigation by the Justice Department.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

Chuck Maitland is a 35-year-old corporate copywriter—“lead copywriter,” he clarifies—who picks up Joey Halstead shortly after dumping his fiancée.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

It all started when Dave Robinson, 39, and his fiancée, Gemma Furby, 37, decided to grow a banana tree in the garden of their home in Alway, Newport, inspired by their travels.

From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026

Even worse, the hospital was preparing to release him to his fiancée.

From Slate ● Jun. 23, 2026

Marcia was Alec's fiancée before he lost his memory, and she recognizes him when he's in this store autographing books.

From "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger

A third person was on a US K-1 visa - for fiancées of American citizens - the US official said.

From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2026

Even their fiancées became close friends, often joining the duo for dinner as couples.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2024

Over 100 letters sent to French sailors by their fiancées, wives, parents and siblings -- but never delivered -- have been opened and studied for the first time since they were written in 1757-8.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2023

Tired of hearing his young friends, Ferrando and Guglielmo, brag about the fidelity of their fiancées, Alfonso challenges them to put their money where their mouths are.

From New York Times ● Mar. 16, 2018

She heard about the family dogs they missed, parents who were ill, fiancées they figured would no longer want them.

From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge