white-tie

1. 1.

   requiring white ties and tailcoats for men

   “a white-tie occasion”

   Similarformal

Questions about white-tie

What does white-tie mean?

white-tie means "requiring white ties and tailcoats for men".

How many syllables are in white-tie?

white-tie has 3 syllables and divides as whi-te--tie under the regular spelling rules. It is not in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so that comes from how the word is written rather than from a recorded pronunciation, and no stress or phonetic transcription is claimed for it.

Is white-tie a common word?

white-tie is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.