Word.ws English Dictionary

opera bouffe

UK/ˌɒp(ə)ɹəˈbuːf/

opera bouffe noun: a type of French comic opera, typified by everyday characters and ludicrous situations.

Noun

opera bouffe (countable and uncountable, plural operas bouffes)

  1. (attributive, often) A type of French comic opera, typified by everyday characters and ludicrous situations.
    • He sang solos from "La Grande Duchesse," and many other opera-bouffe songs, with great taste and verve.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 144
    • There was one moment of opéra bouffe when the plump Biaggi and two other plotters were trapped in an antique Parisian lift between floors on the way to a top-level and secret meeting.1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York: Review Books, published 2006, page 176

Forms of opera bouffe

pluraloperas bouffes
alternative formopéra bouffe

Origin of opera bouffe

From French opéra bouffe.

Questions about opera bouffe

What does opera bouffe mean?
Opera bouffe means a type of French comic opera, typified by everyday characters and ludicrous situations.
What part of speech is opera bouffe?
Opera bouffe is a noun.
How do you pronounce opera bouffe?
Opera bouffe is pronounced /ˌɒp(ə)ɹəˈbuːf/ (UK).
What is the plural of opera bouffe?
The plural of opera bouffe is operas bouffes.

Words near opera bouffe in the dictionary

  1. OpenXPS
  2. opepe
  3. opephoroid
  4. oper
  5. opera
  6. opera bouffe
  7. opera buffa
  8. opera cake
  9. opera cakes
  10. opera cloak
  11. opera cloaks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: opera bouffe (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: “opera bouffe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/opera_bouffe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.