Bachelorette

How to spell bachelorette

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce bachelorette

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bachelorette mean?

1. nounA young unmarried woman, especially one whose upcoming marriage is being celebrated.
2. nounA party held for a woman shortly before her wedding, used as shorthand for the celebration itself.

Bachelorette in a sentence

• The bachelorette spent the weekend away with her closest friends before the wedding.

• They planned the bachelorette at a beach resort for the weekend.

• As a confident bachelorette, she enjoyed living alone in the city.

• The whole bachelorette revolved around dinner, dancing, and a spa visit.

Where does bachelorette come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built on 'bachelor' plus the French feminine ending '-ette', which marks a smaller or female version of something. 'Bachelor' came into English through Old French 'bacheler', which originally described a young man training to become a knight, or a junior member of a guild or university, and only later settled into the modern meaning of an unmarried man. The exact root of 'bacheler' is uncertain, though it is often traced to a Latin word for a young farm worker or herdsman. Adding '-ette' produced a female counterpart, and 'bachelorette' rose in American usage in the twentieth century to mean an unmarried young woman, especially one being celebrated before her wedding. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle, the soft '-elor-' that swallows its vowels, plus the doubled 't' of the '-ette' ending.

How the word is built

• bachelor (unmarried man)
• -ette (French feminine diminutive suffix)