Blonde

How to spell blonde

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce blonde

What does blonde mean?

1. adjectiveHaving fair or golden hair, traditionally used of a woman or girl.
2. nounA woman or girl who has fair or golden hair.

Blonde in a sentence

• adjective

  Her blonde hair had darkened slightly over the winter.

• noun

  The tall blonde in the photograph was her grandmother.

• adjective

  The actress wore a blonde wig for the period drama.

• noun

  Two of the bridesmaids were brunettes and one was a blonde.

Where does blonde come from?

Language of origin: French

This word travelled into English from French, where 'blond' (masculine) and 'blonde' (feminine) describe fair or golden hair, and the spelling with the final 'e' preserves that French feminine form. The French word itself came from the Medieval Latin 'blondus', meaning 'yellow' or 'golden-coloured', though scholars suspect the root may ultimately be Germanic rather than purely Latin, since fair hair was so strongly associated with northern peoples. English adopted the term in the late 1400s, first in the sense of pale or yellowish hair and complexion. Following French grammatical habit, English writers long kept 'blonde' for women and 'blond' for men, which is exactly why the silent final 'e' survives and trips people up. That same French feminine 'e' is the spelling trap here: it is silent, it adds nothing to the sound, and it is easy to drop when writing quickly.

How the word is built

• blond (fair-haired, from French)
• -e (French feminine ending)

Words that sound like blonde

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• blond: Having fair or pale yellow hair, often used of a man or in a general, gender-neutral way.