aînée
French, noun
aînée is spelled A-Î-N-É-E (5 letters) and appears 3.8 times per million words in written French, the 13,537th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Aînée is a French feminine noun meaning “female equivalent of aîné (“eldest”)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a feminine singular of aîné. With an accent, ainée is a different word: “feminine singular of ainé”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Enfant la plus âgée d’une famille”.
What does aînée mean in English?
adjective
- 1
femininefeminine singular of aîné
noun
- 1
femininefemale equivalent of aîné (“eldest”)
adjective
- 1
femininefeminine singular of ainé
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Enfant la plus âgée d’une famille.
noun: 1. Enfant la plus âgée d’une famille. 2. Second enfant à l’égard d’un troisième, et ainsi des autres. 3. Toute personne plus âgée qu’une autre. 4. Personne âgée.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of aînée
- aînées plural
- aîné masculine
- ainées plural
- ainé masculine
- aînée
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is aînée in French?
aînée appears 3.8 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).