matinee
noun
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Soiree: A Fancy Evening Party
In English, soiree means “a fancy evening affair.” The word comes directly from French and was formed from the word soir, meaning “evening” or “night.” The French make a subtle distinction between soir, which refers explicitly to the time of day following sunset, and soirée, which refers to some duration of time, usually translated as “evening.” English speakers don’t use different words, but we understand the difference between “I’ll see you tomorrow evening” and “We spent the evening playing cards”—one refers to a time of day and one refers to the passage of time. From the idea of a period of time evolved the second meaning of soirée: a party that takes place during the evening. As is typical for words that have been borrowed from modern French, soiree in English signifies the fancy version of a simple “party”: an evening event that is formal or refined in some way.
A third sense of soirée in French, “an evening performance,” has a parallel with matinée, from matin “morning. ” Matinée literally means “morning performance” in French but has come to mean “daytime or afternoon performance” in English. The “evening performance” meaning of soirée has not been adopted by English. Our Unabridged of 1934, however, did record both a verb soiree (meaning, presumably, “to hold or attend an evening party”) and the variant swarry, “so spelled in mimicry of mispronunciation.”
Soiree can be spelled in English using the acute accent as soirée, but is usually spelled without it.
Examples of matinee in a Sentence
Jared Kaufman, Twin Cities, 8 Mar. 2026
Espinoza decided to propose during the first one, a Friday matinee against Great Britain.
—Maria Torres, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2026
Now in its fifth year, the Grand Mesa Short Film Festival includes documentary, animation, drama, comedy, and action/adventure stories, along with a kid-appropriate matinee and a spotlight on young filmmakers.
—John Wenzel, Denver Post, 5 Mar. 2026
Although his old costar is just around the corner, Radcliffe has yet to see the production, and doesn’t foresee taking a day off from Every Brilliant Thing to catch a matinee of Cursed Child.
—Chris Murphy, Vanity Fair, 4 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for matinee
Cite this Entry
“Matinee.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/matinee. Accessed 11 Mar. 2026.
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matinee
noun
