mistress
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An adulterous woman.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
mihstruhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmɪstɹəs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An adulterous woman; a woman who has an ongoing extramarital sexual relationship with a man
The other woman in an extramarital relationship, generally including sexual relations.
A woman schoolteacher (especially one regarded as strict)
A woman, specifically one with great control, authority or ownership.
A woman well skilled in anything, or having the mastery over it.
A female head of household.
verb
intransitive
To act or take the role of a mistress.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An adulterous woman; a woman who has an ongoing extramarital sexual relationship with a man
Used this way, mistress is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in relationships contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Relationships
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.