Standard Lemma guide

missus

noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈmɪs.əz/
  • /ˈmɪs.ɪz/
  • /ˈmɪs.əs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • homophone: misses
  • homophone: Misses
  • rhymes with -ɪsəz
  • rhymes with -ɪsəs
  • CMU ARPABET: M IH1 S IH0 Z Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Wife or girlfriend.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia, New-Zealand, UK, colloquial

Examples

  • Harry said he couldn't stop and chat because his missus wanted to go shopping.
  • The missus has a list of chores for me to do this weekend.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Term of address for a woman.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia, New-Zealand, UK, colloquial

Examples

  • 'Scuse me missus, but your petticoat's showing.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

Mrs, a form of address for a married woman.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

informal term of address for someone's wife

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: missis

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: wife, married woman

History

Etymology

Representing a common pronunciation of Mrs, a reduced form of Mistress.

Eye dialect of Mrs.

Across languages

Translations

9 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • French: Madame — form of address for a married woman
  • German: Frau — form of address for a married woman
  • Italian: Signora — form of address for a married woman
  • Occitan: Dòna — form of address for a married woman
  • Portuguese: Senhora — form of address for a married woman
  • Sicilian: Signura — form of address for a married woman
  • Spanish: Señora — form of address for a married woman
  • Ukrainian: па́ні (páni) — form of address for a married woman
  • Xhosa: nkosi (nkosi) — form of address for a married woman