Meaning & use
wedding dress
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Meaning
nouncountable
A special, usually long formal dress that a bride wears at her wedding.
Grammar: Countable: 'a wedding dress', 'two wedding dresses'. In American English people also say 'wedding gown', which sounds a little more formal.
Patterns
- wear a wedding dress
- buy a wedding dress
- try on a wedding dress
She tried on six wedding dresses before choosing a simple white one.
His mother kept her wedding dress for forty years.
The bride's wedding dress had a long lace train.
Word forms
| plural | wedding dresses |
|---|
Common combinations
- a white wedding dress
- In many Western countries, a white wedding dress is still the traditional choice.
- try on a wedding dress
- We spent Saturday trying on wedding dresses in the city.
- a wedding dress shop
- The wedding dress shop opens at ten.
- have a wedding dress made
- She decided to have her wedding dress made by a local designer.
Synonyms and how they differ
- wedding gown
- The preferred term in American English and in formal writing; it suggests a more elaborate, formal dress.
- bridal gown
- Used mainly in shops and magazines; it sounds commercial and slightly formal.
- bridal dress
- Correct but much less common than wedding dress.
Word family
Commonly confused: wedding dress or wedding gown?
wedding dress vs wedding gown
Same item, but 'gown' is the usual word in American English and sounds more formal. A 'gown' can also be a long dress for other formal events, so context matters.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses 'wedding dress' correctly.
Choose one answer.
'Wear a wedding dress at an event' is the natural pattern. Option 2 uses the wrong preposition, option 3 turns the noun into a verb, and option 4 puts the adjectives in the wrong order.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “wedding dress”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.