fiancée

or fi·an·cee

[ fee-ahn-sey, fee-ahn-sey ]

noun

1. a woman engaged to be married.

fiancée

/ fɪˈɒnseɪ /

noun

1. a woman who is engaged to be married

Gender Note

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of fiancée¹

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

Example Sentences

Teal’s fiancée, Emilia Torello, announced his death Sunday on social media, but did not state his cause of death at the time.

From Los Angeles Times

At an earlier sentencing hearing Christopher Morrow's defence barrister told the judge that at the time of the offences his relationship was going through "emotional difficulties" and he "was not having a sexual life while his fiancée was pregnant".

From BBC

Trump’s oldest son Donald Trump Jr, a political adviser after Trump left the White House, was also there, joined by his fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle.

From BBC

Oliver and his fiancée Caitlin Phillips-Diggons are expecting their first baby in November.

From BBC

"Despite the brigade knowing I was off work due to my fiancée having miscarriages, I was put on 'sickness monitoring' and told my absence was putting the service under strain," Mr Dent said.

From BBC

Related Words

• affianced
• affianced person
• betrothed
• bride-to-be
• engaged person
• future mate
• future wife
• intended
• prospective spouse
• wife-to-be