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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

usher.

A person, in a church, cinema etc., who escorts people to their seats.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈʌʃəɹ/[ˈʌʃ.ə(ɹ)]Received-Pronunciation[ˈʌʃ.ɚ]Canada, General-American[ˈɐʃ.ə(ɹ)]Australia, New-Zealand
  1. A person, in a church, cinema etc., who escorts people to their seats.

  2. A male escort at a wedding.

  3. A doorkeeper in a courtroom.

  4. An assistant to a head teacher or schoolteacher; an assistant teacher.

    obsolete
  5. Any schoolteacher.

    dated · derogatory
Where this word comes from

From Middle English ussher, uscher, usscher, from Anglo-Norman usser and Old French ussier, uissier (“porter, doorman”) (compare French huissier), from Vulgar Latin *ustiārius (“doorkeeper”), from Latin ōstiārius, from ōstium (“door”). Akin to ōs (“mouth”). Probably a doublet of ostiary and huissier.

verb/ˈʌʃəɹ/[ˈʌʃ.ə(ɹ)]Received-Pronunciation[ˈʌʃ.ɚ]Canada, General-American[ˈɐʃ.ə(ɹ)]Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To guide people to their seats.

    transitive
  2. To accompany or escort (someone).

    transitive
  3. To precede; to act as a forerunner or herald.

    figuratively · transitive
  4. To lead or guide somewhere.

    figuratively · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English ussher, uscher, usscher, from Anglo-Norman usser and Old French ussier, uissier (“porter, doorman”) (compare French huissier), from Vulgar Latin *ustiārius (“doorkeeper”), from Latin ōstiārius, from ōstium (“door”). Akin to ōs (“mouth”). Probably a doublet of ostiary and huissier.

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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.