Invitée

Invitée is a feminine French noun meaning a person who has been invited to attend an event, a guest. The masculine form is invité, and together they refer to someone who attends by invitation rather than by invitation being extended in a general sense. The plural feminine form is invitées. In everyday use, une invitée simply denotes a female guest, such as a guest at a party, a conference, or a television program (l’invitée du jour).

Etymology and grammar: invitée derives from inviter, the verb meaning to invite. As a past participle, invitée agrees in gender with the subject when used as an adjective or in compound verb forms (la personne invitée). When used as a noun, the accent and feminine ending mark its gender. The corresponding masculine form is invité, and the two forms align with the gender of the person described.

Usage: invitée is common in social and media contexts. Examples include l’invitée d’honneur (the guest of honor), l’invitée surprise (the surprise guest), and l’invitée d’un talk-show (the female guest on a talk show). It is also used in formal invitations and program notes.

Notes: The term can sometimes cause ambiguity in written French because the feminine past participle and the feminine noun share the same spelling. Context usually clarifies whether the word is functioning as a noun or as an adjective. Some contexts also use the gender-neutral or masculine form invitée as a descriptive label when the invited person’s gender is unknown or not specified.