Power Suffixes: -ette

A borrowing from Middle French, -ette is a diminutive suffix. There are two widely used senses of this suffix: the first denotes the smallness of an object and the second refers to a woman carrying out the role of the root word.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. baguette
    a long, narrow loaf of French bread
    “We can’t live without bread here,” said Bruno Lanterne, 55, a hairdresser, as he left the bakery, two baguettes tucked under his arm. New York Times (Mar 15, 2020)
  2. barrette
    a small clip for holding hair in place
    After her day in the orchard, she dotes on her three-year-old daughter, whose black hair she carefully combs back and secures with tiny barrettes. The Guardian (Jul 10, 2019)
  3. cassette
    a flat case holding magnetic tape for playing sound or video
    While vinyl records were still the most popular music format, the Walkman—originally the “Sound-About” in the United States—played much smaller cassettes and was small enough to fit in a purse or pocket. Time (May 3, 2016)
  4. coquette
    a woman who flirts, often for personal gain
    The ballet offers no chance to develop empathy for or understanding of Amélie, played as a powerfully seductive coquette by Ms. Osipova. New York Times (Feb 16, 2016)
  5. croquette
    a small patty of minced food that is coated and fried
    Simply listed as potato croquettes, the small plate arrives as a surprise: golden squiggles of fried batter dusted with what appears to be powdered sugar, but is in fact duck fat powder. Washington Post (Nov 1, 2018)
  6. epaulette
    an ornamental cloth pad worn on the shoulder
    Their shirts were tucked neatly into waistbands with bright yellow epaulettes on the shoulders and caps dipped low over their faces. The Guardian (Jul 23, 2015)
  7. etiquette
    rules governing socially acceptable behavior
    She longed to touch that fur, to rub her cheeks against it, but of course she never did; for it was the grossest breach of etiquette imaginable to touch another person’s daemon. The Golden Compass
  8. gazette
    a newspaper or official journal
    Those at the deforestation frontier do not follow the publication of decrees and laws in the government’s official gazette or read the details of legal changes reported in major newspapers. Science Magazine (Nov 22, 2019)
  9. lorgnette
    eyeglasses that are held to the eyes with a long handle
    The august personage in purple paused at sight of the slender, blue-frocked figure, and raising a gold-mounted lorgnette to her eyes deliberately inspected it. Kingsley, Florence Morse
  10. lunette
    semicircular or crescent-shaped opening
    A lunette window near the ceiling splashed the canvas with light at an angle similar to that of the implicit light source in Caravaggio’s composition. The New Yorker (Nov 20, 2016)
  11. marionette
    a figure operated from above with strings by a puppeteer
    It was as though the masked wizards on the ground were puppeteers, and the people above them were marionettes operated by invisible strings that rose from the wands into the air. Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
  12. oubliette
    a dungeon with a trap door in the ceiling
    He knew there were true dungeons down in the castle cellars—oubliettes and torture chambers and dank pits where huge black rats scrabbled in the darkness. A Dance with Dragons
  13. palette
    a board on which an artist mixes paints
    With a palette balanced in my left hand, I press the tip of my brush into the gray splotch of acrylic paint. Starfish
  14. pipette
    a tube to measure or transfer precise volumes of liquid
    Using a micro pipette, we injected a tiny drop of oil containing fluorescent dyes into a cell. Scientific American (Jul 28, 2015)
  15. pirouette
    a rapid spin of the body
    Reyes, with her wide-eyed gaze, seems wholly supported by the music, whirled into multiple pirouettes on its airy currents, while Hallberg evinces a graver joy, balancing perfectly measured phrasing with unhurried technical precision. The Guardian (Feb 5, 2011)
  16. suffragette
    a woman advocate of women's right to vote
    Critics called these women “suffragettes,” a word intended to be disparaging, but the women embraced the term as one of power and rebellion. Votes for Women!
  17. vignette
    a brief literary description
    The short biographies, or “vignettes,” dropped between chapters sketch a relationship between a physical book and its owner. New York Times (Nov 19, 2019)
  18. vinaigrette
    a dressing made of oil, a sour liquid, and seasonings
    Make vinaigrette: In a food processor, combine garlic, half the lemon juice, half the zest, half the mint, 1 cup peas, half the cilantro, half the basil, olive oil, vinegar and mayo. Wall Street Journal (Jun 14, 2018)
Created on Wed Apr 08 19:17:39 EDT 2020 (updated Mon Apr 13 16:30:14 EDT 2020)

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