Miss

From mistress.

• enPR: mĭs, IPA^(key): /mɪs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (colloquial) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪz/

  Rhymes: -ɪs

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.

• 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 US 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.

• (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)}

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

• Miß (superseded)

Borrowed from English Miss.

• IPA^(key): /mɪs/

• Audio:

  (file)

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)

• Misswahl (“beauty contest”)

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