blonde

English

Alternative forms

• blond (masculine)

Etymology

From Middle French blonde f. See blond.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /blɒnd/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /blɑnd/
• Rhymes: -ɒnd

Noun

blonde (plural blondes)

1. Alternative form of blond (person of fair hair). (Used especially of a woman. See the usage notes in the entry blond.)
2. Alternative form of blond (pale golden brown color).

   blonde:  

3. (film, television, theater) A kind of 2,000-watt lamp.

   Coordinate term: redhead

   • 2012, Colin Hart, Television Program Making, page 63:

     Most [camera crews] carry two blondes and three redheads or their equivalents. Blondes are 2000 watt lamps traditionally with yellow heads (or shells) used to light fairly large areas — also referred to as 2Ks — and redheads smaller 800 watt lamps traditionally with red shells to light faces.

Derived terms

• ash blonde
• atomic blonde
• aviation blonde
• blonde joke
• blonde moment
• blondeness
• bottle blonde
• bronde
• dirty blonde
• dishwater blonde
• dumb blonde
• golden blonde
• honey blonde
• ice blonde
• nonblonde
• peroxide blonde
• platinum blonde
• sandy blonde
• strawberry blonde
• titanium blonde

 

Translations

blond — see blond

Adjective

blonde (comparative blonder or more blonde, superlative blondest or most blonde)

1. (especially of a woman) Alternative form of blond
   • 1895, S. R. Crockett, A Cry Across the Black Water:

     So the great wasteful summer days went by, the glory of the passionate nights of July, the crisper blonde luxuriance of August.

   • 2001, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, translated by Margaret Sayers Peden, “The Lost Ship”, in The Nautical Chart, San Diego, Calif.: Harcourt, Inc., →ISBN, page 78:

     In a bar in Copenhagen, for example, filled with blond men and blonde women who in the end turned out to be more blond men, the Torpedoman got riled because when he copped a feel he found a handful of something he hadn’t expected.

     [original: Como en aquel bar de Copenhague lleno de hombres rubios y de mujeres rubias que al final resultaron ser también hombres rubios, donde el Torpedero Tucumán se había enfadado porque al meter mano se encontró quinientos buenos gramos de lo que no esperaba; […]]

   • 2007, Meg Burden, chapter 9, in Northlander (Tales of the Borderlands; 1), Weston, Conn.: Brown Barn Books, →ISBN, page 67:

     The tables are full of blond men and blonde women, the room full of the smells of food and the sound of harsh, clipped Northlander voices.

2. (especially of a woman, offensive) Stupid, ignorant, naive.
   • 2005, Nancy Bartholomew, Lethally Blonde, Silhouette, →ISBN, page 8:

     Emma's already huge green eyes widen and she gives me this look like, “Oh my God, sometimes you are just so blonde!”

   • 2014, Aviva Drescher, Leggy Blonde: A Memoir, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

     I was so blonde I honestly had no idea why he got so angry. He cooled on me for a week or so.

   • 2003, Bennett Fairorth, The Land Where My American Mother Died--Palermo, Sicily, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 201:

     “She was so blonde, she studied for a blood test, when she went to the airport and saw a sign that said, 'Airport Left,' she turned around and went home, when she heard that 90% of all crimes occur around the home, she moved.

Usage notes

See the usage notes in the entry blond.

Derived terms

• blonde bombshell

Translations

blond — see blond

Verb

blonde (third-person singular simple present blondes, present participle blonding, simple past and past participle blonded)

1. (especially of a woman) Alternative form of blond
   • 1964, LIFE, volume 56, number 10, page 25:

     Most women who blonde their hair today have been doing it for several years.

References

• “blonde”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• Bolden, bolden, bolned

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

blonde

1. inflection of blond:
   1. masculine/feminine singular attributive
   2. definite neuter singular attributive
   3. plural attributive

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blɔ̃d/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

blonde

1. feminine singular of blond

Noun

blonde f (plural blondes)

1. blonde, female with blonde hair
2. light beer
3. (North America, informal) girlfriend

   Antonym: chum

Related terms

• bière blonde

Further reading

• “blonde”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈblɔndə/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

blonde

1. inflection of blond:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈblon.de/
• Rhymes: -onde
• Hyphenation: blón‧de

Noun

blonde f pl

1. plural of blonda

Swedish

Adjective

blonde

1. definite natural masculine singular of blond