Word.ws English Dictionary

French braid

French braid noun: a braided hairstyle starting with three small sections of hair near the crown of the head, which are then braided together toward the nape of the neck, gradually adding more hair to each section as it crosses in from the side into the center of the braid structure. The final result incorporates all of the hair into a smoothly woven pattern over the scalp.

french braid: a braided hairstyle starting with three small sections of hair near the crown of the head, which...
Image: Stilfehler, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

French braid (plural French braids)

  1. A braided hairstyle starting with three small sections of hair near the crown of the head, which are then braided together toward the nape of the neck, gradually adding more hair to each section as it crosses in from the side into the center of the braid structure. The final result incorporates all of the hair into a smoothly woven pattern over the scalp.

Verb

French braid (third-person singular simple present French braids, present participle French braiding, simple past and past participle French braided)

  1. (transitive) To braid into a French braid.
    • Barbara French braided my hair—isn't it pretty?1998, Mary Downing Hahn, As Ever, Gordy
    • She French braided her hair pulling it straight back from her face.2002, Kathryn M White, The Killer Wore White: “Who Wanted the Women Dead?”, page 15

Forms of French braid

Noun
pluralFrench braids
alternative formFrench-braid
Verb
third-person singular presentFrench braids
present participleFrench braiding
past participleFrench braided
pastFrench braided

Questions about French braid

What does French braid mean?
French braid means a braided hairstyle starting with three small sections of hair near the crown of the head, which are then braided together toward the nape of the neck, gradually adding more hair to each section as it crosses in from the side into the center of the braid structure. The final result incorporates all of the hair into a smoothly woven pattern over the scalp.
What part of speech is French braid?
French braid can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of French braid?
The plural of French braid is French braids.

Words near French braid in the dictionary

  1. French bed
  2. French beds
  3. French berries
  4. French berry
  5. French bishop
  6. French braid
  7. French braided
  8. French braiding
  9. French braids
  10. French bread
  11. French breads

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: French braid (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: “French braid.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/french_braid. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.