matron
Americannoun
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a married woman, especially one who is mature and staid or dignified and has an established social position.
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a woman who has charge of the domestic affairs of a hospital, prison, or other institution.
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a woman serving as a guard, warden, or attendant for women or girls, as in a prison.
noun
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a married woman regarded as staid or dignified, esp a middle-aged woman with children
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a woman in charge of the domestic or medical arrangements in an institution, such as a boarding school
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a wardress in a prison
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Official name: nursing officer. the former name for the administrative head of the nursing staff in a hospital
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of matron
1350–1400; Middle English matrone < Latin mātrōna a married woman, wife, derivative of māter mother
Explanation
A matron is a dignified, serious-minded married woman. The warden in a women's prison is also called a matron, which may lead you to conclude that the term is often not a glowing compliment. In a wedding, you can have a maid of honor (the bride’s unmarried attendant) or a matron of honor (one who’s married). Matron includes the Latin root mater, "mother" — as in “maternal,” “maternity,” and “matrimony.” You may imagine matrons as gray-haired and stern, like Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and to avoid negative stereotypes, the title matron, for the woman who runs a nursing home or boarding school, is often replaced with the gender-neutral “director.”
Vocabulary lists containing matron
The Mother of All Lists: Mater, Matr
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Bad Boy
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"Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
She asked to speak to the matron and was "ushered into the kitchen where a teenage girl was eating rice".
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2025
Seema cosplaying a garden society matron certainly isn’t the worst vision this show has served.
From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2025
She arrived for breakfast looking elegant in a black-and-white caftan, the picture of an Upper West Side matron, a matron without a sizable body count.
From New York Times ● Nov. 29, 2024
She has been called the “godmother of stuntwomen” and “the grand matron of Hollywood stuntwomen,” working well past retirement age.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2024
Without answering, the matron went to her files.
From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt
Mueenuddin, whose gift for satire shines whether he’s describing society matrons or gangsters, never loses sight of his theme: How do any of us ever manage to justify our treatment of the underserved?
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2025
Behind her back, the other matrons make snarky remarks about her while sipping her tea; we learn all this because we share Millie’s point of view and the moms speak freely in front of her.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025
The same dynamic applies for another vintage descriptor for members: “younger matrons and girls,” an allusion to youthful women, married and not.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 18, 2024
Band 8 is divided into four sections, including modern matrons and heads of nursing teams, who can earn between £48,526 and £91,787.
From BBC ● Dec. 22, 2022
It was more than I could stand, and before the next speaker could begin I hurried past the disapproving eyes of teachers and matrons, out into the night.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
