Word.ws English Dictionary

beau monde

beau monde noun: the fashionable part of society.

Noun

beau monde (plural beaux mondes)

  1. (dated) The fashionable part of society.
    • ...and I am sure you will permit me to invite a friend or two, for you know I only deal with choice spirits, the élite of the beau monde.1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 223
    • But the intellectuals one meets are something else again. I didn't behave well with the mental beau monde of Chicago.1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 57

Synonyms of beau monde

Forms of beau monde

pluralbeaux mondes

Origin of beau monde

Borrowed from French beau monde (literally “beautiful world”).

Words formed from beau monde

Questions about beau monde

What does beau monde mean?
Beau monde means the fashionable part of society.
What part of speech is beau monde?
Beau monde is a noun.
What is the plural of beau monde?
The plural of beau monde is beaux mondes.

Words near beau monde in the dictionary

  1. beau geste
  2. beau gestes
  3. beau ideal
  4. beau idéal
  5. beau joueur
  6. beau monde
  7. beau monde seasoning
  8. beau sabreur
  9. Beau's lines
  10. beau-catcher
  11. beau-catchers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beau monde (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.

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