Miss

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

English

Etymology

From mistress.

Pronunciation

• enPR: mĭs, IPA^(key): /mɪs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (colloquial) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪz/

  Rhymes: -ɪs

Noun

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.
   • 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.

2. Form of address for a teacher or a waitress.

   Excuse me, Miss, Donny's been pinching my pencils again.

3. (Philippines) A respectful term of address or reference to a woman of higher rank or position before the woman's given name or nickname.

Usage notes

• 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.
• 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.

Coordinate terms

• (titles) (of a man): Mr (Mister, mister), Sir (sir); (of a woman): Ms (Miz, mizz), Mrs (Mistress, mistress), Miss (miss), Dame (dame), Madam (madam, ma'am); (of a non-binary person): Mx (Mixter); (see also): Dr (Doctor, doctor) ^{(Category: en:Titles)}

Derived terms

• Miss Emma
• Miss Fidditch
• Miss Girl
• Miss Lucy
• Miss Piggy
• Miss Thang, Miss Thing

Translations

title

• Afrikaans: juffrou, mej.
• Albanian: zonjushë (sq) f
• Arabic: آنِسَة (ar) f (ʔānisa)
• Armenian: օրիորդ (hy) (ōriord)
• Azerbaijani: xanımqız
• Basque: andereño
• Belarusian: па́нна f (pánna), спада́рычна f (spadáryčna), па́нна f (pánna), (also: madam) спада́рыня f (spadárynja), (also: madam) па́ні f (páni)
• Bulgarian: госпо́жица (bg) f (gospóžica)
• Chamicuro: ic̈hulupa
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 小姐 (siu² ze²)

  Mandarin: 小姐 (zh) (xiǎojiě)

• Czech: slečna (cs) f
• Danish: frøken (da) c
• Dutch: mejuffrouw (nl) f, juffrouw (nl) f
• Esperanto: fraŭlino (eo)
• Estonian: preili
• Faroese: frøkun f
• Finnish: neiti (fi) (Nti)
• French: mademoiselle (fr) f (obsolete), madame (fr) f (modern usage)
• Georgian: ქალიშვილი (ka) (kališvili)
• German: Fräulein (de) n, Frau (de) f (modern usage), Miss (de) f (in English contexts)
• Greek: δεσποινίδα (el) f (despoinída), δεσποινίς (el) f (despoinís), μις (el) f (mis)
• Hindi: सुश्री (hi) f (suśrī), मिस (hi) f (mis), कुमारी (hi) f (kumārī)
• Hungarian: kisasszony (hu)
• Icelandic: fröken f, ungfrú (is) f
• Ido: damzelo (io)
• Indonesian: nona (id)
• Irish: ógbhean, iníon (ga) f
• Italian: signorina (it) f
• Japanese: お嬢さん (ja) (おじょうさん, o-jō-san), お嬢様 (ja) (おじょうさま, o-jō-sama), -さん (ja) (-san) (generic for both sexes)
• Khmer: កញ្ញា (km) (kaññaa) (unmarried girl or waitress), អ្នកនាង (nĕək niəng) (high class of unmarried girl), នាង (km) (niəng) (waitress or unmarried girl), អ្នកគ្រូ (nĕək kruu) (female teacher)
• Korean: 미스 (ko) (miseu), 아가씨 (ko) (agassi), 숙녀(淑女) (ko) (sungnyeo)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: خوشکە (xuşke)

• Latin: dominula f
• Latvian: kundze f, kundzene f
• Lithuanian: panelė f
• Luxembourgish: Joffer (lb)
• Macedonian: госпо́ѓица f (gospóǵica)
• Malay: cik (ms)
• Maltese: sinjorina f
• Manx: cronnaghey
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: frøken m or f

• Occitan: domaisèla (oc)
• Persian: دوشیزه (fa) (dušize), دختر خانم (fa) (doxtar xânom), مادمازل (mâdmâzel)
• Polish: panna (pl) f
• Portuguese: senhorita (pt) f
• Romanian: domnișoara f, Dra
• Russian: ба́рышня (ru) f (báryšnja), де́вушка (ru) f (dévuška), мадемуазе́ль (ru) f (madɛmuazɛ́lʹ), мисс (ru) f (miss) (in translations), (also: madam) госпожа́ (ru) f (gospožá)
• Sanskrit: कुमाऋ f (kumāṛ)
• Scottish Gaelic: maighdeann (gd)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: го̏спођица f, гђица f

  Roman: gȍspođica (sh) f, gđica f

• Slovak: slečna f
• Slovene: gospodična (sl) f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: kněžna f

• Spanish: señorita (es) f
• Swedish: fröken (sv) c
• Tagalog: (Bb.) binibini
• Thai: นางสาว (th) (naang-sǎao)
• Turkish: bayan (tr)
• Ukrainian: па́нна f (pánna), ба́ришня (uk) f (báryšnja), (also: madam) па́ні (uk) f (páni)
• Urdu: آنِسَہ (ur) f (ānisa)
• Vietnamese: cô (vi), chị (vi)
• Welsh: bonesig

Anagrams

• ISMs, isms, MSiS, SIMS, Sims, ISMS, MSIs, sims, SMIs

German

Alternative forms

• Miß (superseded)

Etymology

Borrowed from English Miss.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɪs/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

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

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

• Misswahl (“beauty contest”)

Further reading

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