abbe
US/æˈbeɪ/
abbe is the alternative spelling of abbé.
Meaning of abbé
Noun
abbé (plural abbés)
- A low-ranking member of the Roman Catholic clergy in France who is not a member of a religious order, is not a priest, and can marry and inherit property; an honorific title for such a clergymember.
- At graduation [Pierre Simon] Laplace faced an anguishing dilemma. His master’s degree permitted him to take either the priestly vows of celibacy or the title of abbé, signifying a low-ranking clergyman who could marry and inherit property. Abbés did not have good reputations; Voltaire called them...2011, Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy, Yale...
- A French abbot, the (male) head of an abbey.
Proper noun capitalized: Abbe
Abbe
- A British surname.
Forms of abbe
| plural | abbes |
|---|
Origin of abbe
Variant of Abbey.
Words formed from abbe
Phrases with abbe
Words that rhyme with abbe
Questions about abbe
- What does abbe mean?
- Abbe means a British surname.
- What is abbe the alternative spelling of?
- Abbe is the alternative spelling of abbé.
- What part of speech is abbe?
- Abbe is a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce abbe?
- Abbe is pronounced /æˈbeɪ/ (US).
Words near abbe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: abbe (page history and authors); Abbe (page history and authors); abbé (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: EN-Abbe.ogg.
Cite this entry: “abbe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/abbe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.