headmistress
Americannoun
noun
Gender
See -ess.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of headmistress
Explanation
A headmistress is the female principal of a school, particularly a private school. You might need to ask the headmistress of your high school for a college recommendation. Private schools and prep schools often call the person in charge a headmaste if he's a man and a headmistress if she's a woman. It's more common to have a principal in the United States, especially in public schools. The word headmistress is commonly thought of as British, but it's increasingly likely that a British student will use the term head teacher instead, since it can refer to either a man or a woman.
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.
Headmistress Georgina Deluquez says the influx of Venezuelan students has been a challenge for her school.
From BBC • Apr. 22, 2023
At the beginning of “Riddance,” Headmistress Joines writes a letter to Herman Melville, who has been dead for nearly thirty years.
From The New Yorker • Oct. 24, 2018
For dispirited Labor strategists, the theme of "Headmistress" Thatcher bullying her colleagues was a heaven-sent chance to go briefly on the offensive.
From Time Magazine Archive
He gets his daughter admitted to an exclusive girls' school by calling Old Headmistress Ethel Barrymore "darling," and by singing an oldtime vaudeville number at the school's annual musicale.
From Time Magazine Archive
“I was asking Headmistress if we could be relocated, and she looked at me and started laughing. We are the last. All the schools in Umuahia have become refugee camps or army training camps.”
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
