Wiktionary

Miss

See also: miss, miß, Miß, miss-, miß-, and Miss.

English

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Etymology

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From mistress.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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Miss (plural Misses or Mlles)

  1. Form of address, now used chiefly for an unmarried woman; used chiefly of girls before the mid-1700s, and thereafter used also of adult women without regard to marital status.
    1. With a surname.
      These are the two young ladies that I wanted you to meet, Miss Jones and Miss Robinson.
    2. With a full name.
      The victim was named as Miss Jane Doe.
    3. (dated or regional) With a first name only.
      Excuse me Ma'am, will Miss Julia and Miss Emily be staying for tea?
      • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
        She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.
    4. (dated) Used alone.
      Good morning, Miss. May I help you?
  2. Form of address for a female teacher or a waitress.
    Excuse me, Miss, Donny's been pinching my pencils again.
  3. Used in title of the (female) winner of a beauty contest, or certain other types of contest, prefixing the country or other region that she represents, or the category of contest.
    Ladies and gentlemen, please give a round of applause to our lovely new Miss Yorkshire!
    And I can now announce that this year's Miss Personality is ... Doris Miggins!
  4. (often disparaging or sarcastic) Used in a mock title to point out some quality, or alleged quality, of a girl or woman.
    Don't ask me, ask Miss know-it-all over there.

Usage notes

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  • When referring to people with the same name, either of two forms may be used: Misses Brown or Miss Browns.
  • Both Miss and Mrs are frequently replaced by Ms in current usage.
  • In the US, the use of Miss with a first name only, as in Miss Julia was common in the Southern U.S. only. Elsewhere only the full or last names were possible: Miss Brown, Miss Julia Brown. In the UK, Miss with a first name only was formerly associated with the speech of servants or lower-class persons when addressing or referring to their superiors.

Coordinate terms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Anagrams

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German

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English Miss.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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Miss f (genitive Miss, plural Misses or (beauty queen) Missen)

  1. Miss (form of address)
  2. title for a beauty queen
    Miss Deutschland ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Declension

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Declension of Miss [feminine]
singular plural
indef. def. noun def. noun
nominative eine die Miss die Misses, Missen
genitive einer der Miss der Misses, Missen
dative einer der Miss den Misses, Missen
accusative eine die Miss die Misses, Missen

Derived terms

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Further reading

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  • “Miss” in Duden online
  • “Miss” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
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