fiancée

See also: fiancee and fianceé

English

Alternative forms

• fiancee

Etymology

Etymology tree

French fiancé

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂

Proto-Italic *-ā

Latin -am

Old French -e

French -e

French fiancéebor.

English fiancée

Borrowed from French fiancée.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fiˈɒ̃.seɪ/, /fiˈɒn.seɪ/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /fiˈɑn.seɪ/, /ˌfi.ɑnˈseɪ/
• Homophone: fiancé

Noun

fiancée (plural fiancées)

1. (somewhat formal) A woman who is engaged to be married; the woman to whom one is engaged.
   • 1980 July, Zhang Haipeng, “An English Fighter in a Chinese Peasant War”, in China Reconstructs, volume XXIX, number 7, Peking, →OCLC, page 30, column 3:

     Toward the end of 1860, as told in his book, Lindley, together with his Portuguese fiancée Marie, a British friend he called “L.”, and a Greek friend B. Philip, joined the Taiping Army at Tianjing (Nanjing) — the capital of the Taiping Kingdom.

Usage notes

• Traditionally, the spelling fiancée is used for a woman who is engaged, with fiancé being the male counterpart. (This is a reflection of the corresponding distinction in French.) However, this distinction is not reliably followed today.

Derived terms

• ex-fiancée

Related terms

• fiancé

Translations

woman who is engaged to be married

• Albanian: nuse (sq) f
• Arabic: خَطِيبَة f (ḵaṭība)
• Armenian: հարս (hy) (hars), հարսնացու (hy) (harsnacʻu)
• Azerbaijani: adaxlı, nişanlı
• Basque: emaztegai (eu), andregai (eu)
• Belarusian: няве́ста f (njavjésta), нарачо́ная f (naračónaja) (dated)
• Bengali: বাগ্দত্তা (bn) (bagdotta)
• Bulgarian: годени́ца (bg) f (godeníca)
• Burmese: သတို့သမီး (my) (sa.tui.sa.mi:) (bride)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 未婚妻 (mei⁶ fan¹ cai¹)

  Mandarin: 未婚妻 (zh) (wèihūnqī)

  Wu: 飛洋傘 / 飞洋伞 (¹fi-yan-se)

• Chukchi: ӈэвъэнлыӄыл (ṇėvʺėnlyqyl)
• Czech: snoubenka (cs) f
• Dalmatian: ninapta f
• Danish: forlovet, kæreste (da) c
• Dutch: verloofde (nl) f
• Esperanto: fianĉino (eo)
• Estonian: mõrsja
• Finnish: morsian (fi)
• French: fiancée (fr) f
• Georgian: საცოლე (sacole)
• German: Verlobte (de) f; Braut (de) f
• Greek: αρραβωνιαστικιά (el) f (arravoniastikiá)
• Hebrew: אֲרוּסָה f (arusa)
• Hindi: मँगेतर (hi) m or f (maṅgetar) (fiancé or fiancée), मंगेतर m or f (maṅgetar) (fiancé or fiancée), वाग्दत्ता (hi) f (vāgdattā), दुलहिन (hi) f (dulhin), दुल्हन f (dulhan)
• Hungarian: menyasszony (hu), ara (hu), mátka (hu)
• Icelandic: unnusta (is) f
• Ido: fiancitino (io)
• Italian: fidanzata (it) f
• Japanese: 婚約者 (ja) (こんやくしゃ, kon'yakusha) (fiancé or fiancée), フィアンセ (ja) (fianse) (fiancé or fiancée)
• Kazakh: қалыңдық (qalıŋdıq)
• Khmer: គូកំណាន់ (kuu kɑmnan) (fiancé or fiancée)
• Korean: 약혼녀(約婚女) (ko) (yakhonnyeo)
• Kyrgyz: колукту (koluktu)
• Ladino: espozada f
• Latin: sponsa f
• Latvian: līgava f
• Lithuanian: sužadėtinė f
• Macedonian: сврше́ница f (svršénica)
• Malagasy: fofom-bady (mg)
• Malay: tunang (ms) n
• Māori: whaiāipo
• Norman: fianchie f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: forlovede m

• Oromo: kaadhimaa
• Pannonian Rusyn: заручнїца f (zaručnjica)
• Pashto: چنغاله f (čenǧãla), چنغله (ps) f (čenǧalá), کوژدن f (koẑdǝn), کوېژده f (kweždá), کوزده f (kozdá)
• Persian:

  Dari: نَامْزَد (fa) (nāmzad) (fiancé or fiancée)

  Iranian Persian: نامْزَد (nâmzad) (fiancé or fiancée)

• Polish: narzeczona (pl) f
• Portuguese: noiva (pt) f
• Romani: piramnyi f
• Romanian: logodnică (ro) f
• Russian: неве́ста (ru) f (nevésta), наречённая (ru) f (narečónnaja) (dated)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ве̏реница f, вје̏реница f, за́ручница f

  Latin: vȅrenica (sh) f, vjȅrenica (sh) f, záručnica (sh) f

• Slovak: snúbenica f
• Slovene: zaročenka f
• Spanish: novia (es) f, prometida (es) f
• Swahili: mchumba (sw)
• Swedish: fästmö (sv) c
• Tagalog: babaeng katikya, babaeng katipan
• Tajik: арӯс (arüs), арус (tg) (arus), номзад (nomzad) (fiancé or fiancée)
• Thai: คู่หมั้น (th) (kûu-mân) (fiancé or fiancée)
• Turkish: nişanlı (tr)
• Ukrainian: наре́чена f (naréčena)
• Urdu: مَن٘گیتَر m or f (maṅgetar) (fiancé or fiancée), دُلْہَن f (dulhan)
• Uyghur: بولغۇسى كېلىن (bolghusi këlin), سۆيگەن قىزى (söygen qizi), كېلىن (këlin)
• Uzbek: kelin (uz)
• Vietnamese: vợ chưa cưới (vi), vị hôn thê
• Walloon: mayon (wa) f, comere (wa) f
• Welsh: dyweddi f, darpar wraig f
• Zazaki: vaşti, nışanın

See also

• engage
• marriage

Anagrams

• faience

French

Etymology

From fiancé +‎ -e.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fjɑ̃.se/, /fi.jɑ̃.se/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Homophone: fiancé

Participle

fiancée f sg

1. feminine singular of fiancé

Noun

fiancée f (plural fiancées)

1. female equivalent of fiancé (“fiancé”): a fiancée
2. a large yellow underwing

Descendants

• → English: fiancée
• → Japanese: フィアンセ (fianse)

Anagrams

• caféine, faïence