Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

prude

/pɹuːd/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.58 in modern English

Syllables: prude
IPA: /pɹuːd/

8

Scrabble Score

5

Letters

1

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A person who is or tries to be excessively proper, especially one who is easily offended by matters of a sexual nature.

adj

name

Example Sentences

"He became shy. "I hadn't meant to tell you. It's not quite for a lady." For, like most men who are rather animal, he was intellectually a prude."
"If you didn't go for Lila you're some kind of prissy old prude. If you did go for her you were some kind of dirty old man."
"And the best thing about her is that she's not a prude. In fact, she's something of a trollop: she jokes with everybody and laughs and makes fun of everything."

Etymology

From French prude, from Old French prude, prode, feminine of prou, prod, prud (“good, excellent, brave”), from Latin prōde. Related to proud but unrelated to prudent.

Origin

Source language: French

Word Breakdown

Root: prude, prōde

Inflected Forms

prudes (plural) more prude (comparative) most prude (superlative)

Derived Forms

prudelike prudely prudeness prudery prudification prudify prudish prudism prudist

Frequently Paired Words

proud

Synonyms

prig goody-goody puritan celibacist erotophobe antisexualist bluenose goody two shoes killjoy moralist priss

Antonyms

libertine rake

Rhymes With

food include non-food you'd dude mood viewed rude reviewed renewed crude nude

Questions

How do you pronounce prude?: The recorded pronunciation is /pɹuːd/.
What does prude mean?: A person who is or tries to be excessively proper, especially one who is easily offended by matters of a sexual nature.
Where does prude come from?: It is traced to French.

How to pronounce prude

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “prude”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/pɹuːd/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “prude”.
Repeat and practice — Say “prude” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.