debutante

noun

Definition of debutantenext
as in maid
a young upper-class woman who has begun going to special parties where she will meet and be seen by other people from the upper class The invitation-only event is a prized ticket for the city's debutantes.

Related Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of debutante The Deb tells the story of two female cousins navigating their awkward adolescence ahead of the annual debutante ball, which is like prom. — Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 12 May 2026 The Deb dispute is playing out across different fronts in Los Angeles and Australia, overshadowing the feel-good movie about outback teens attending a debutante ball. — Jake Kanter, Deadline, 28 Apr. 2026 At balls that approximate what Bridgerton might be like if the charming debutantes were matched with white-haired monsters instead of handsome, age-appropriate nobles, Commanders spike their prospective Wives’ drinks. — Judy Berman, Time, 8 Apr. 2026 For young Black girls, cotillions and debutante balls are more than just a coming of age ceremony. — Raisa Habersham, Miami Herald, 2 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for debutante
Recent Examples of Synonyms for debutante
  1. maid
  2. girl
  3. virgin
  4. ingenue
  5. maiden
  6. deb
Noun
  • Loyal Maids in Extravagant Mansions While Solana is a disorderly servant, Clarita reflects the trope of the loyal maid of the higher class, the societal expectation in the region.
    — Damaly Gonzalez, ARTnews.com, 30 Sep. 2026
  • Lizzie and Bridget having a romantic relationship Monster depicts Lizzie and Bridget as forming a romantic relationship, which starts when Bridget becomes a maid for her family.
    — Kelly Allen, PEOPLE, 20 Sep. 2026
Definition of maid
Noun
  • Four people, including two teenage girls, were hurt when a Russian drone struck a residential area in northern Ukraine's Chernihiv region on Sunday evening, said Viacheslav Chaus, head of the regional military administration.
    — HANNA ARHIROVA, Arkansas Online, 29 Sep. 2026
  • But Paulina’s big plans are upended by the arrival at the school of Ericka (Jasmine Amy Rogers), a light-skinned Black girl from America with a Ghanaian father and a white mother back in Ohio.
    — Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 29 Sep. 2026
Definition of girl
Noun
  • Bridget reads Lizzie the tale of Countess Elizabeth Báthory of Ecsed (also portrayed by Krieps), a 16th-century Hungarian noblewoman said to have bled beautiful virgins to bathe in their blood and preserve her beauty.
    — Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 17 Sep. 2026
  • Next, take a lint-free cloth and rub a small amount of virgin, unrefined coconut oil into the wood in a swirling circular fashion.
    — Emily Hayes, Martha Stewart, 17 Sep. 2026
Definition of virgin
Noun
  • Johnson, who a near decade ago was a bubbly ingenue on the brink of superstardom, has since developed a reputation for a certain cool-girl deadpan opacity, a kind of mischievous remove during press appearances.
    — Alessandra Codinha, Vogue, 18 Sep. 2026
  • McInerny saw a character who deviated from the usual ingenue.
    — Carole Horst, Variety, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of ingenue
Noun
  • There was a procession to the church of white clad handmaidens (tärnor), star boys (stjärngossar) and gingerbread men (pepparkaksgubbar) with candle wreaths on the maidens’ heads – now battery powered rather than actual flames.
    — Natasha Langan, TheWeek, 29 Sep. 2026
  • This second tale unfolds in an isolated cabin in the 1950s, as a lonely man on death’s door, Tom (Nick Nolte), a father in wait for his estranged daughter, finds an unconscious maiden, Alice (Caylee Cowan), outside in the snow.
    — Siddhant Adlakha, IndieWire, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of maiden
Noun
  • Kemper and her older sister (far left) posed with another deb dressed in pink, Reagan Sacks (far right), who brought some drama to the blush color in a tulle Schiaparelli gown.
    — Zoey Lyttle, PEOPLE, 2 Dec. 2025
  • The viral video showed Martin, dressed in custom blue Valentino, in a moment with another deb, French countess Aliénor Loppin de Montmort.
    — Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 18 Dec. 2024
Definition of deb

Browse Nearby Words

debut
debutante
debutantes
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Debutante.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/debutante. Accessed 4 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Oct. 2

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
name tags
Words Named After People Quiz Find out who’s behind "leotard," "morphine," an...
See All