Word.ws English Dictionary

-etta

-etta is the alternative form of -ette.

Meaning of -ette

Suffix (1)

-ette

  1. (diminutive) Used to form nouns meaning a smaller form of something.
    • cigar + -ette → cigarette
    Synonyms:
    -cule, -ee, -el, -et, -icle, -ie, -kin, -le, -let, -ling
  2. Used to form nouns meaning or implying the female equivalent of.
    • bachelor + -ette → bachelorette
  3. Used to form nouns meaning an imitation or substitute of something.
    • leather + -ette → leatherette
  4. (Polari) Used to form nouns with a Polari context or an association with gay subculture.
    • You may have vada'd one of our tiny bijou masterpiecettes, heartface.1967, Barry Took, Marty Feldman, “Gaslight Son of Flicker”, in Round the Horne, spoken by Sandy (Kenneth Williams)

Suffix (2)

-ette

  1. Used to form nouns and adjectives signifying a person, especially a woman, with the specified hair color.
    • purple + -ette → purplette

Origin of -etta

From Italian -etta.

Questions about -etta

What is -etta the alternative form of?
-etta is the alternative form of -ette.

Words near -etta in the dictionary

  1. -eth
  2. -ethidine
  3. -etic
  4. -etidine
  5. -etine
  6. -etta
  7. -ette
  8. -ety
  9. -eum
  10. -euse
  11. -ever

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -etta (page history and authors); -ette (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “-etta.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-etta. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.