Word.ws English Dictionary

-ette

/-ɛt/

-ette suffix: used to form nouns meaning a smaller form of something.

Suffix (1)

-ette

  1. (diminutive) Used to form nouns meaning a smaller form of something.
    • cigar + -ette → cigarette
    • disk + -ette → diskette
    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
    • drum major + -ette → drum majorette
  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)
    • 'Shame, eh, my little cherry? I was really bonar for him and all. It'll be a lonely old arthur for me tonight as usual. Ah well, let's have another little drinkette then, shall we? And perhaps, Poppett,' he sighed histrionically. 'I'll learn to keep my queeny old polari for them what appreciates...2002, Gilda O'Neill, The Sins Of Their Fathers (Eastend Trilogy; 1)

Suffix (2)

-ette

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

Synonyms of -ette

12 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

4 more antonymsFewer antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of -ette

Origin of -ette

Inherited from Middle English -ette, borrowed from Old French -ette, from Latin -ittus.

Back-formation from brunette.

Questions about -ette

What does -ette mean?
-ette means used to form nouns meaning a smaller form of something.
What part of speech is -ette?
-ette is a suffix.
How do you pronounce -ette?
-ette is pronounced /-ɛt/.

Words near -ette in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl--ette.wav.

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