headmistress

American  

[hed-mis-tris] / ˈhɛdˈmɪs trɪs /

noun

• headmistresses
  plural

1. a woman in charge of a private school.

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headmistress British  

/ ˌhɛdˈmistrəs /

noun

1. Gender-neutral form: head teacher.  a female principal of a school

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Gender

See -ess.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• headmistress-ship
  noun
• headmistressship
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• headmistresses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of headmistress

First recorded in 1870–75; head + mistress

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

See Examples For:

headmistress headmistresses

“Of course, clubs aren’t clubs as they used to be,” said Agnes Nugent, 76, a retired headmistress, who joined the Rand Club in the early 1990s as one of its first female members.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 22, 2025

"Over the years, we had lower and lower people who decided to come to this school," the headmistress says, in English, hinting at tensions.

From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2025

Neither the stage production nor the musical can do much with the melodramatic Madame Morrible, the headmistress at Shiz who becomes a key player in the Wonderful Wizard of Oz’s fascist machinations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2024

Headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh, who calls herself Britain’s strictest headmistress, said the ruling was a victory for all schools.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 16, 2024

“It is from Miss Charlotte Mortimer, my former headmistress at school.”

From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood

For one thing, amapiano - a type of house music that emerged from South Africa's townships in the early 2010s - was a genre for young people, not for 65-year-old school headmistresses.

From BBC ● Dec. 11, 2020

Across Australia politicians, police, columnists, headmistresses, radio loudmouths, preachers and priests had united in declaring Roth’s 1969 scatological masterpiece Portnoy’s Complaint a danger to the morals of the nation.

From The Guardian ● May 26, 2018

I've been expelled from three and the headmistresses still swoon when they hear my name breathed.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 6, 2010

A paradoxical reason for sending children to private prep schools was offered last week to a Manhattan conference of headmasters and headmistresses.

From Time Magazine Archive

Harry suddenly noticed that every single one of the old headmasters and headmistresses in the portraits around the walls was awake and listening in on their conversation.

From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling