brunette

Syllables: bru·nette/bɹuːˈnɛt/US/bɹuˈnɛt/

brunette adjective: of a brown color or tone.

Image: THOR, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

brunette (not comparable)

(especially) Of a brown color or tone.
1. (dated, especially, strictly) Of a dark brown color or tone.
  - Frosting and Tipping of your hair is for winter hi-fashion. It adds hi-lights to any brunette or brownette hair, softens the looks and adds body to the hair.1962 January 22, Betty Chason, “Vanity Fair”, in The News Tribune, volume 59, number 37, Fort Pierce, Fla., →OCLC, page 6, column 7
  - Hey, kiddies, Christopher Reeves,^([sic]) who has dark brunette locks whilst winging through the air as “Superman,” has light brownette hair in person.1980 December 25, Cindy Adams, “Dr. [Joyce] Brothers moves; Tiny Tim’s new lady”, in The Sentinel-News, volume 40, number 93, Shelbyville, Ky., →OCLC, page 12-A, column 3
(especially, feminine) Having brown hair.

Synonyms:

brune
1. (dated, especially, feminine, strictly) Having dark brown hair.
  - The survey asked for preferences in smoking and drinking, and whether they preferred blonde, brunette, or red-haired or brownette women as dates.1940 February 28, “Rice Owl Conducts Survey on Preferences of Men Students”, in The Houston Chronicle, home edition, volume 39, number 138, Houston, Tex., →ISSN, →OCLC, section A, page 9, column 2
  - MAX FACTOR ★ HOLLYWOOD has created these luxurious Gift Sets in Color Harmony shades for blonde, brownette, brunette or red-head types. Every woman is interested in the gift which will reveal her individual loveliness.1940 December 7, “Gifts that will linger in Memory”, in The Australian Women’s Weekly, →ISSN, →OCLC, “The Movie World” section, page 29, column 3

Noun

brunette (plural brunettes)

A person, especially female, with brown hair.
- And M. [Henri-François-Alphonse] Esquiros, in describing the Dutch generally, speaks of beauties both blondes and brunettes, ‘for black hair is not uncommon in the Netherlands.’ These words seem to imply that black hair does not preponderate; and, if not, there must be a marked difference between...1866, Luke Owen Pike, “The Evidence of Physical Characteristics”, in The English and Their Origin. A Prologue to Authentic English History., London: Longmans, Green, and Co., pages 145–146
- The housekeeper, a very decorative brunette of thirty-five with a pseudo-English accent, greeted him with a mixture of grateful effusion and condescending patronage.1946, William Hatfield, Buffalo Jim, Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege, page 70
Synonyms:

brune
1. (dated, strictly) A person, especially female, with dark brown hair.
  - FOR THE BLONDE. . . […] FOR THE BROWNETTE. . . […] FOR THE REDETTE. . . […] FOR THE BRUNETTE. . . whose coloring is accented with nationally known Barbara Gould beauty aids— […]1947 September 5, “Sears”, in The Kansas City Star, main edition, volume 67, number 336, Kansas City, Mo., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 18, column 6
  - The models were very attractive indeed (blondes, brunettes, brownettes but no redettes) but on the slim side.1960 January 21, John Robinson, “In This Corner”, in The Hamilton Spectator, home edition, volume CXV, number 17, Hamilton, Ont., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 31, column 6

Proper noun capitalized: Brunette

Brunette (plural Brunettes)

A surname from French.

brunette meaning in Bengali, Malayalam, Tagalog and Arabic

brunette in Bengali

শ্যামাঙ্গিনী

brunette in Malayalam

brown-haired, dark, dark-haired: താമ്രകേശിനിയായ, വെള്ളക്കാരുടെ ഇടയിൽ ഇരുണ്ടനിറക്കാരിയായ, ചെമ്പൻമുടിയുള്ള, ഇരുണ്ട നിറമുള്ള, കറുത്തതലമുടിയുള്ള

brunette in Tagalog

having brown hair: pulahang buhok

brunette in Arabic

having brown hair: امرأَة ذات شعر بني أو أسود, سمراء
a person, especially female, with brown hair: سَمْرَاء samrāʔ

Examples of brunette in a sentence

I originally had very dark brunette hair but I have been going gray for years. […] I have my hair colored brownette with blonde highlights.1985 December 10, Emily Wilkens, quoting E.T., “A New You: Coloring over the gray roots prevents ‘bald spot’ problem”, in The Star-Ledger...
And 70 per cent of American women are naturally brunette or brownette; […]1962 June 14, Maureen Counihan, “There Is Nothing Lovelier Than Soft Brownette Hair”, in The Lexington Herald, volume 92, number 142...
Brownheads or brunettes use a darker red than blondes and redheads.2020, Eleanore King, Glorify Yourself:

All 34 example sentences with brunette

Synonyms of brunette

brune

Forms of brunette

Adjective
alternative form (rare)	brunet
Noun
plural	brunettes
Proper noun
plural	Brunettes

Origin of brunette

Borrowed from French brunette, the feminine form of brunet, from brun (“brown”). Doublet of burnet.

Words formed from brunette

Words that rhyme with brunette

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about brunette

What does brunette mean?: Brunette means of a brown color or tone.
What is brunette in Bengali?: Brunette in Bengali is শ্যামাঙ্গিনী. See Brunette meaning in Bengali.
How do you use brunette in a sentence?: I originally had very dark brunette hair but I have been going gray for years. […] I have my hair colored brownette with blonde highlights.
What part of speech is brunette?: Brunette can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce brunette?: Brunette is pronounced /bɹuˈnɛt/ (US).

Words near brunette in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: brunette (page history and authors); Brunette (page history and authors); brunette (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); brunette (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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: 2026-09-02

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

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