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• dame
  dame

  noun

  (in Britain)
• Dame
  Dame

  noun

  the title of a woman who has been awarded the Order of the British Empire or any of certain other orders of chivalry

dame

American  

[daym] / deɪm /

noun

• dames
  plural

1. (initial capital letter) (in Britain)

   1. the official title of a female member of the Order of the British Empire, equivalent to that of a knight.

   2. the official title of the wife of a knight or baronet.

2. (formerly) a form of address to any woman of rank or authority.

3. a matronly woman of advanced age; matron.

4. Slang: Sometimes Offensive. a term used to refer to a woman.

   Some dame cut me off and almost caused an accident.

5. Ecclesiastical. a title of a nun in certain orders.

6. a mistress of a dame-school.

7. Archaic. the mistress of a household.

8. Archaic. a woman of rank or authority, especially a female ruler.

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dame ¹ British  

/ deɪm /

noun

1. (formerly) a woman of rank or dignity; lady

2. a nun who has taken the vows of her order, esp a Benedictine

3. archaic a matronly or elderly woman

4. slang a woman

5. Also called: pantomime dame. the role of a comic old woman in a pantomime, usually played by a man

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Dame ² British  

/ deɪm /

noun

1. the title of a woman who has been awarded the Order of the British Empire or any of certain other orders of chivalry

2. the legal title of the wife or widow of a knight or baronet, placed before her name Compare Lady

   Dame Judith

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Sensitive Note

Dame is sometimes perceived as insulting when used to refer generally to a woman, unless it is a woman of rank or advanced age.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• dames
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of dame

1175–1225; Middle English < Old French < Latin domina, feminine of dominus lord, master

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dame Dame dames

A quick search through social media tells you that the 85-year-old is "a pioneer", "brilliant" and the "grand dame of autism research".

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026

The “grand dame diva of culture, divahood and porcine glamour” Miss Piggy, was honored at the show, where she showed up, naturally, in a pink dress and feather boa.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026

She was made a dame in 2009, and has also acted as a senior adviser to the British government and the United Nations on artificial intelligence.

From Barron's ● Feb. 20, 2026

Twila is, in Hollywood parlance, a “firecracker” — you know, the tough-talking dame who inevitably nurses a wounded heart.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2026

“It’s very film noir. All we need is a fog machine and a dame with a gun and checkered past.”

From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed

And at the French capital's Notre Dame Cathedral, an AI system has been trained to transcribe 14,600 Latin pages from the church's medieval archives -- a task not dissimilar to code-breaking.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, urged consumers to carry out thorough checks on traders before agreeing to hire them.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

Got a little fast,’” said Chris Neal, who coached Mauri at Notre Dame.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026

For weeks last spring, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High coaches and players waited for The Decision from their best football player, Tahj Skinner, on whether he would agree to play quarterback.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026

“This is Dame Olga,” Father said, touching the tall lady’s arm.

From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine

West, one of the grande dames of the movement, got her start at Seattle alt-weekly the Stranger and spent years excoriating fatphobia, online misogyny, and male entitlement for the ur-millennial-feminist site Jezebel.

From Slate ● Mar. 31, 2026

Mattie Ross is one of the toughest dames in American literature.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026

"She's certainly one of the grande dames in Scotland," she said.

From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2025

Movies: Olivier’s widow could be playing grand dames on stage, but she likes the travel and money from matriarchal characters in films.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2025

Boston ladies, their skirts all passe- mentarie and furbelow, India silk and jaconet, crowded the chambers, swiveling their hoops and panniers like dames on clocks to navigate the doors.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson

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