Standard Lemma guide

songstress

noun · 3 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.

  • General-American: /ˈsɑŋɡ.stɹɪs/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɑŋɡstɹɪs

1

noun

Meaning 1

A female singer.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A female songbird.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a woman songster (especially of popular songs)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: songster

History

Etymology

From songster + -ess. Compare West Frisian sjongeres (“songstress”), Dutch zangeres (“songstress”).

Across languages

Translations

32 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: певи́ца (pevíca) — a female singer
  • Chinese Mandarin: 女歌手 (nǚ gēshǒu) — a female singer
  • Czech: zpěvačka — a female singer
  • Czech: pěvkyně — a female singer
  • Danish: sangerinde — a female singer
  • Dutch: zangeres — a female singer
  • Esperanto: kantistino — a female singer
  • Finnish: laulajatar — a female singer
  • Finnish: naislaulaja — a female singer
  • French: chanteuse — a female singer
  • German: Sängerin — a female singer
  • Hungarian: énekesnő — a female singer
  • Italian: cantante — a female singer
  • Japanese: 女性歌手 (josei kashu) — a female singer
  • Japanese: 歌姫 (utahime) — a female singer
  • Latin: cantrīx — a female singer
  • Middle English: syngeresse — a female singer
  • Middle English: syngster — a female singer
  • Norwegian Bokmål: sangerinne — a female singer
  • Polish: pieśniarka — a female singer
  • Portuguese: cantora — a female singer
  • Russian: певи́ца (pevíca) — a female singer
  • Russian: певу́нья (pevúnʹja) — a female singer
  • Scottish Gaelic: bean-seinn — a female singer
  • Serbo-Croatian: пјева̀чица — a female singer
  • Serbo-Croatian: pjevàčica — a female singer
  • Spanish: cantante — a female singer
  • Spanish: cantora — a female singer
  • Swedish: sångerska — a female singer
  • Ukrainian: співа́чка (spiváčka) — a female singer
  • Yiddish: זינגערין (zingerin) — a female singer
  • Yiddish: זינגערקע (zingerke) — a female singer