Word.ws English Dictionary

coup de foudre

/ˈkuː də ˈfuːdɹə/

coup de foudre noun: a sudden unexpected event, especially an emotional one; love at first sight.

Noun

coup de foudre (plural coups de foudre)

  1. A sudden unexpected event, especially an emotional one; love at first sight.
    • The encounter with Laura that Good Friday was a coup de foudre, and for the rest of his life he was to adore her, mostly from afar.2007, Edwin Mullins, The Popes of Avignon, Blue Bridge, published 2008, page 84
    • They immediately fell madly in love. A lightning bolt. Coup de foudre.2023, Pamela Anderson, Love, Pamela, →ISBN

Forms of coup de foudre

pluralcoups de foudre

Origin of coup de foudre

Borrowed from French coup de foudre (“lightning strike”).

Questions about coup de foudre

What does coup de foudre mean?
Coup de foudre means a sudden unexpected event, especially an emotional one; love at first sight.
What part of speech is coup de foudre?
Coup de foudre is a noun.
How do you pronounce coup de foudre?
Coup de foudre is pronounced /ˈkuː də ˈfuːdɹə/.
What is the plural of coup de foudre?
The plural of coup de foudre is coups de foudre.

Words near coup de foudre in the dictionary

  1. coup d'théâtre
  2. coup d'état
  3. coup d'états
  4. coup d'œil
  5. coup de force
  6. coup de foudre
  7. coup de grace
  8. coup de grâce
  9. coup de main
  10. coup de maitre
  11. coup de savate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: coup de foudre (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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