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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

sir.

A man of a higher rank or position.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/sɜː/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/sɜɹ/General-American/sɪɾ/Scotland/søː/New-Zealand, Wales

  1. A man of a higher rank or position.

  2. A respectful term of address to a man of higher rank or position, particularly

  3. A respectful term of address to a man of higher rank or position to a knight or other low member of the peerage.

    Just be careful. He gets whingy now if you don't address him as Sir John.

  4. A respectful term of address to a man of higher rank or position to a superior military officer.

    Sir, yes sir.

  5. A respectful term of address to a man of higher rank or position to a teacher.

    Here's my report, sir.

  6. A respectful term of address to an adult male (often older), especially if his name or proper title is unknown.

    Excuse me, sir, do you know the way to the art museum?
Where this word comes from

From Middle English sir, unstressed form of sire, borrowed from Old French sire (“master, sir, lord”), from Latin senior (“older, elder”), from senex (“old”). Doublet of seigneur, seignior, senhor, senior, señor, senyor, signore, and sire.

verb/sɜː/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/sɜɹ/General-American/sɪɾ/Scotland/søː/New-Zealand, Wales

  1. To address another individual using "sir".

    informal · transitive
    Sir, yes, sir! —Don't you sir me, private! I work for a living!
Where this word comes from

From Middle English sir, unstressed form of sire, borrowed from Old French sire (“master, sir, lord”), from Latin senior (“older, elder”), from senex (“old”). Doublet of seigneur, seignior, senhor, senior, señor, senyor, signore, and sire.

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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.