English words of French origin

A great number of words of French origin have entered the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

to the extent that many Latin words have come to the English language. According to different sources, 45% of all English words have a French origin. This suggests that 80,000 words should appear in this list; this list, however, only includes words imported directly from French, such as both

joy The word joy refers to the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune, and is typically associated with feelings of intense, long lasting happiness. Dictionary definitions Dictionary definitions of joy typically include a sense of ...

and joyous, and does not include derivatives formed in English of words borrowed from French, including joyful, joyfulness,

partisanship A partisan is a committed member of a political party or army. In multi-party systems, the term is used for persons who strongly support their party's policies and are reluctant to compromise with political opponents. A political partisan is no ...

, and parenthood. It also excludes both combinations of words of French origin with words whose origin is a language other than French — e.g.,

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...

, sunray,

jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrell ...

, killjoy, lifeguard, and

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