This is a list of loan words adopted into the English language that have letters with diacritical marks. Most of the words listed here have come to English from French. Others have come from Spanish, German and Czech. Usage of diacritics is rare where indicated. Proper nouns are not listed except when used as an eponym.

Some non-English words have become "naturalized" into the English language and the accents and other diacritics are generally no longer used (for example "à propos", which lost both the accent and space to become "apropos"). Many of the words below are also in the process of losing their accents but can be found in print in both their accented and unaccented versions. Other words are still most often found with their accents, often to help indicate pronunciation (e.g. frappé, naïve, soufflé), or to help distinquish them from an unaccented English word (e.g. exposé, résumé, rosé). Technical terms or those associated with specific fields (especially cooking or musical terms) are less likely to lose their accents (such as cinéma vérité and épée). French words with 'oö' often have the diaeresis replaced by a hyphen, becoming 'o-o', e.g. co-operate. There are also those Spanish words with the letter "ñ", which have occasionally been naturalized by replacing the "ñ" with "ny" (e.g. cañon is now usually canyon, piñon is now usually pinyon), but other Spanish words have not undergone the same transformation (e.g. El Niño, mañana, piñata).

A

à bas, à la, à la carte , à la mode , abbé, adiós, Ancien Régime, animé (either the oleo-resin, or Japanese animation, which is usually spelled without the diacritic), apéritif, appliqué, aprè, après-ski, arête, attaché, auto-da-fé

B

belle époque, bête noire, bêtise, blasé, boîte, Boötes, boutonnière, bric-à-brac

C

café, canapé, cañon (rare or obsolete - now canyon), château, cause célèbre, chaînés, cinéma vérité (or cinéma verité), cliché, cloisonné, consommé, communiqué, confrère, continuüm (rare), coöperate [-ion, -ive] (rare), coördinate [-ion] (rare), cortège, coup d'état, coup de grâce, crèche, coulée, crème, crème brûlée, crème caramel, crème de cacao, crème de menthe, crêpe, crêpe paper, crêpe suzette, croûton, crudités, Curaçao

D

daïs, débâcle, débutante, déclassé, décolletage, décolleté, décor, découpage, déjà vu, démodé, dérailleur, derrière, déshabillé, détente, diamanté, discothèque, divorcée, Doña, doppelgänger

E

éclair, éclat, El Niño, élan, élite , émigré , entrée, entrepôt, entrecôte, épée , étude , exposé

F

façade, fête , faïence, fiancé, fiancée, fin de siècle, flambé, flèche, fouetté, frappé, fräulein, Führer

G

garçon, garçon d'honneur, gâteau, gemütlichkeit, Gewürztraminer, glacé, glögg, Götterdämmerung, Gräfenberg spot

H

habitué, háček

I

idée fixe, idée reçue, ingénue

J

jäger, jalapeño, jardinière

K

kümmel

L

lamé, ländler, langue d'oïl, La Niña, littérateur, lycée

M

macramé, maître d', maître d'hotel, mañana, manège, manqué, maté, matériel, mélange, mêlée (also melée), ménage à trois, mésalliance, métier, Möbius strip, moiré

N

naïf, naïve, naïveté, né, née, negligée, Neufchâtel cheese, Nez Percé, Noël, número uno

O

objet trouvé, olé, ombré, omertà, opéra bouffe, Opéra Comique, öre , øre , outré

P

papier-mâché, passé, pâté, pied-à-terre, piña colada, piñata, piñon, piqué, più, plié, précis, preëmpt [-ion, -ive] (rare), première , protégé, protégée, purée

R

raison d'être, recherché, résumé or resumé, residuüm (rare), retroussé, risqué, rôle, rivière, roman à clef, rosé, roué

S

sauté, séance, señor, señorita, Sinn Féin, soigné, soirée, soufflé, soupçon

T

tête-à-tête, touché

U

über , Übermensch

V

ventre à terre, vicuña, vin rosé, vis à vis, voilà

Z

zoölogy (rare)

A few phrases that use words with diacritics

"Bon appétit!"; "Comme ci, comme ça."; "Hasta mañana."; "La crème de la crème."; "Plus ça change."; "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."; "¿Qué pasa?"

See also

• Diacritics
• Loan words
• English language: Written accents

• Lists of English words of international origin
• List of English words of French origin
• French phrases used by English speakers
• List of German expressions in English
• German phrases used by English speakers
• List of English words of Spanish origin
• Spanish phrases used by English speakers