Fiancée vs Fiancé – Difference Between Fiancée and Fiancé

Fiancé is a title bestowed upon a man who is engaged to be married, whereas fiancée is a title bestowed upon a woman who is engaged to be married. For those who have been contemplating the difference between fiance and fiancee, it turns out that the answer is entirely gender specific.

A great deal of confusion in the fiancé vs fiancée debate comes from the way that these words get used as part of spoken sentences. Because they sound exactly the same when pronounced, it can be a little difficult to separate them from one another.

Definition of Fiancée – What Does Fiancée Mean?

A fiancée is specifically a female who is with a romantic partner to whom she is committed to be married by means of engagement.

You might be feeling like the fiancee vs fiance debate is now a little moot considering that the fiancée vs fiancé meanings are essentially one and the same, but as we touched on at the beginning, it’s the verbal pronunciation of each word that often leads to them being confused for one another as it is virtually identical.

You need to use one word to address a man, and one word to address a woman. When you say the words, they will sound the same. This is why it can be so hard to separate fiancee vs fiance.

Really, the major difference between fiancee vs fiance largely comes down to the way they are written as you probably wouldn’t know the difference purely by hearing each word spoken.

The origins of this word are also precisely the same as fiancé. With that said, there are two very specific reasons why we have two separate words in the form of fiance or fiancee as opposed to just one.

When a word from a foreign language gets carried over into the English language, we often make two changes to make it recognisable. We typically add an accent mark (just like the little mark above the “E” in fiancé and also one in fiancée), and we also add an extra “E” on the end if we are referring to a female.

Definition of Fiancé – What Does Fiancé Mean?

A fiancé is specifically a male who is with a romantic partner to whom he is committed to be married by means of engagement. An engagement period relates directly to the period of time that elapses between a marriage proposal and the actual time of a marriage being officiated. Once officiated, the romantic couple is then classed as a “married” couple and given the titles “Mr.” and “Mrs.”

Ultimately, fiancé is a gender-specific word with the same meaning and cultural significance as fiancée.

Further exploration behind the origins of each word and their meaning is certainly going to help you to remember the difference between fiance and fiancee and how to use these words properly going forward.

The word itself has origins in the French, Latin, and Old French languages. There are a combination of several words from these languages that helped to form the two gender-specific variants we commonly use today to define fiance or fiancee.

The words in question are “fidere,” “fiance,” and “fiancer.” In order, they mean trust, promise, and betroth. Simply due to the definition of these old words, it’s very easy to see how the modern day meaning of the two modern words we’re looking at today came to be.

The fiancée vs fiancé meaning is now probably very obvious to you, but it’s important to explain why there are two different words in the first place as it’s going to help you to identify other words of a foreign origin more easily.

What Is Main the Difference Between Fiancée and Fiancé?

To help you to remember the difference between fiancée vs fiancé, we’ve created a quick reference table covering the main points below:

Basis of Comparison	Fiancé	Fiancée
Gender	Male	Female
Spoken pronunciation	Identical to Fiancée	Identical to Fiancé
Spelling	Only one “E”	Two “E’s”
Accent marks	One accent mark	One accent mark
Meanings	A man who is engaged to be married	A woman who is engaged to be married

This table alone highlights everything you need to separate fiance and fiancee from one another. Even if you don’t read through the definitions of each word in full, you can still tell them apart just by absorbing the information above. Just in case you’d like a little more information to lay out their specific differences, we’ve also created an FAQ for you.

Fiancée and Fiancé Difference – FAQ

What is the fiance opposite gender?

The opposite gender to a fiancé (male) is a fiancée (female).

What is the fiancee opposite gender?

The opposite gender to a fiancée (female) is a fiancé (male).

So, what’s the difference between fiance and fiancee anyway?

The difference between the two is that a fiancé is a male and a fiancée is a female.

What’s the fiance meaning supposed to be?

A fiancé is a male who is committed to be married to a female romantic partner by means of engagement.

Is it supposed to be fiance or fiancee because I’m not sure?

The correct term to use depends entirely on the gender of the person you are speaking to. A fiancé would be the appropriate title for a male who is engaged to be married whereas a fiancée would be the appropriate title for a female who is engaged to be married.

Overall, these questions in conjunction with our quick reference table should allow you to easily separate fiance vs fiancee from one another.

So What Is Fiancé and Fiancée? – Conclusion

In summary, though the difference between fiance and fiancee largely relies only on one letter, it’s very easy to see how they can get mistaken for one another in both written and spoken word.

When it comes to spoken word, the confusion is largely due to perspective. So when someone thinks they are labelling an engaged member of the opposite sex in the correct manner, they may be thinking of entirely the wrong word based on their gender.

Our table and FAQ should finally help you to remember the differences between fiance vs fiancee easily, but a quick sentence for you to absorb and come back to if you get lost is:

“The word “male only has one “E,” just like fiancé. The word “female” has two “E’s,” just like fiancée.”

If that one sentence alone stays in your mind, then you should have no trouble at all when it comes to effectively summarizing fiancé vs fiancée from now on.