grande dame

Definition of grande damenext
as in dowager
a dignified usually elderly woman of some rank or authority the city's grandes dames still hold considerable sway in its cultural life

Synonyms & Similar Words

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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 grande dame The hotel that doesn’t just provide a place to bed down but reflects the city’s grandest vision of itself—a Carlyle or Claridge’s or, in the case of a smaller city like San Francisco, a miniature grande dame like the Beau-Rivage Genève. Ben Ryder Howe, Air Mail, 14 Mar. 2026 Glittering grande dames and jewel box boutique hotels give the aesthetically minded jet-setter plenty to think about; but for your own personal palazzo, why not book an Airbnb in Venice? Elly Leavitt, Vogue, 9 Feb. 2026 Then in her mid-fifties, Bainbridge was already well on her way to the status of a slightly rackety grande dame, having made her name in the Seventies with a blizzard of short, elliptical novels, comic in execution but tinged with an underlying darkness. Christopher Tayler, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026 Athena, meanwhile, is a grande dame with an inability to shake anything off. Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 17 Jan. 2026 See All Example Sentences for grande dame
Recent Examples of Synonyms for grande dame
Noun
  • The show’s underpinned by the differences in character and country of Lady Cora and her formidable mother-in-law, the dowager Countess Violet Crawley, played by the equally formidable and much missed Dame Maggie Smith.
    Baz Bamigboye, Deadline, 22 July 2025
  • The empress dowager’s legacy Empress Dowager Ling was largely unsuccessful in her bid for power.
    Stephanie Balkwill, The Conversation, 17 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • The matron on duty, Annie Leewright, booked the woman into jail.
    Kevin Foster, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 28 Mar. 2026
  • The couple will spend the remainder of the early morning hours in a threesome with an elderly society matron, sucking on her earlobes.
    David Fear, Rolling Stone, 28 Mar. 2026
Noun
  • That music was one of the only ways to communicate with his mom and formed the soundtrack to the mother and son’s happiest moments.
    Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 27 Apr. 2026
  • The film explores a teenager’s struggles in 1998 alongside his mother’s repressed trauma from the 1948 Jeju April 3 Uprising.
    Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 27 Apr. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Grande dame.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/grande%20dame. Accessed 3 May. 2026.

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