Word.ws English Dictionary

fontange

UK/fɒnˈtɒ̃nʒ//fɔnˈtɑnʒ/

fontange noun: a headdress popular among aristocrats in Europe in the late 17th century and early 18th century, made with pleated layers of starched lace and ribbon.

fontange: a headdress popular among aristocrats in Europe in the late 17th century and early 18th century,...
Image: John Smith / After Jan van der Vaart, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

fontange (plural fontanges)

  1. A headdress popular among aristocrats in Europe in the late 17th century and early 18th century, made with pleated layers of starched lace and ribbon.

Forms of fontange

pluralfontanges

Origin of fontange

From Angélique de Fontanges, one of French king Louis XIV's mistresses, who sported the headdress.

Questions about fontange

What does fontange mean?
Fontange means a headdress popular among aristocrats in Europe in the late 17th century and early 18th century, made with pleated layers of starched lace and ribbon.
What part of speech is fontange?
Fontange is a noun.
How do you pronounce fontange?
Fontange is pronounced /fɒnˈtɒ̃nʒ/ (UK).
What is the plural of fontange?
The plural of fontange is fontanges.

Words near fontange in the dictionary

  1. fontanelles
  2. fontanels
  3. Fontanes
  4. Fontanez
  5. Fontanezes
  6. fontange
  7. fontanges
  8. Fontanilla
  9. Fontanillas
  10. fontanite
  11. Fontans

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fontange (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)-Flame, not lame-fontange.wav.

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