fille

Fille is a feminine noun in French with two broad meanings: a daughter in a family and, more generally, a girl or young female. In everyday use it refers to a female child or adolescent, as in ma fille (my daughter) or une fille de sept ans. In broader or more formal contexts, it can denote a young woman, for example une jeune fille or une fille de vingt ans, depending on accompanying qualifiers.

Etymology and forms: Fille comes from Old French fille and ultimately from Latin filia, meaning daughter. The noun has the plural form filles. Related terms include filleule (goddaughter) and the masculine counterpart fils (son). Common phrases include fille unique (only daughter), fille au pair (a girl who works as a live-in child caretaker with a host family), and filleul/filleule for godchildren.

Usage notes: Fille is widely used across the Francophone world, including France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada. It contrasts with femme, which denotes a grown woman, and with jeune femme, which is a more formal or neutral term for an adult woman. The word is versatile in registers, appearing in families, literature, media, and everyday speech. In many contexts, specifying age or relationship clarifies meaning, such as une jeune fille, une fille de douze ans, or ma fille unique.