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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

mistress.

A woman, specifically one with great control, authority or ownership.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmɪs.tɹɪs//ˈmɪs.ʈrɪs/South-Asia/mɪsˈʈrɛs/South-Asia

  1. A woman, specifically one with great control, authority or ownership.

    She was the mistress of the estate-mansion, and owned the horses.

  2. A female head of household.

  3. A female teacher.

    games mistress

  4. The other woman in an extramarital relationship, generally including sexual relations.

  5. A dominatrix.

  6. A woman well skilled in anything, or having the mastery over it.

  7. A woman regarded with love and devotion; a sweetheart.

  8. A married woman; a wife.

    Scotland

  9. A respectful mode of address to a woman.

    archaic

  10. The jack in the game of bowls.

    obsolete

  11. A female companion to a master (a man with control, authority or ownership).

  12. Female equivalent of master.

    feminine · form-of

  13. Female equivalent of mister.

    feminine · form-of
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *meǵh₂-der.? Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-der.? Proto-Italic *magisteros Latin magister, magistrum Old French maistre Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂der. Ancient Greek -ῐᾰ (-ĭă) Ancient Greek -ισσα (-issa)bor. Latin -issader. Old French -esse Old French maistressebor. Middle English maistresse English mistress From Middle English maistresse, from Old French maistresse (whence French maîtresse), feminine of maistre (“master”). By surface analysis, mist(e)r + -ess.

verb/ˈmɪs.tɹɪs//ˈmɪs.ʈrɪs/South-Asia/mɪsˈʈrɛs/South-Asia

  1. Of a woman: to master; to learn or develop to a high degree of proficiency.

    rare · transitive

  2. To act or take the role of a mistress.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *meǵh₂-der.? Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-der.? Proto-Italic *magisteros Latin magister, magistrum Old French maistre Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂der. Ancient Greek -ῐᾰ (-ĭă) Ancient Greek -ισσα (-issa)bor. Latin -issader. Old French -esse Old French maistressebor. Middle English maistresse English mistress From Middle English maistresse, from Old French maistresse (whence French maîtresse), feminine of maistre (“master”). By surface analysis, mist(e)r + -ess.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.