madam
Americannoun
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mesdames,
plural
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madams
plural
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(often initial capital letter) a polite term of address to a woman, originally used only to a woman of rank or authority.
Madam President; May I help you, madam?
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the woman in charge of a household.
Is the madam at home?
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the woman in charge of a house of prostitution.
noun
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a polite term of address for a woman, esp one considered to be of relatively high social status
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a woman who runs a brothel
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informal a precocious or pompous little girl
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informal the lady of the house
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of madam
1250–1300; Middle English madame < Old French, originally ma dame my lady; see dame
Explanation
Madam is a very formal way to address a woman, particularly an older or married woman. A waiter at a fancy restaurant might say, "Your table is ready, madam." If a stranger calls a woman madam, he probably sees her as a mature, dignified person. If the woman is younger, she is more likely to be called "miss," and sometimes madam is abbreviated as "ma'am." Another kind of madam is a woman who owns or runs a house of prostitution. Madam comes from the French phrase ma dame, "my lady."
Vocabulary lists containing madam
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:
When a lawman confirms to Cal the rumor that Cathy, known by then as the nearby town’s madam, Kate, shot his father, Cal muses, “He must have done something to hurt her.”
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2026
Martha Plimpton, never not great, plays Faye, a madam for whom Cathy works; and Zoe Phillips makes an impression in her scattered scenes as Abra Bacon, who’ll date Aron but feels connected to Cal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
"How would madam like her hair today?" teased Mrs Bennett, combing the hair of one of her four-year-old charges.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2025
Speaker Frank: A simple matter of coordination, madam.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 21, 2023
“I am perfectly healthy, madam, apart from a slight dustmite allergy, and I don’t think even you can do anything about that. No. What I want from you is your Book.”
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
He played queens, courtesans, goddesses and brothel madams with a studied grace.
From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2026
Black History Tours from Off the Mall Tours: Off the Mall Tours offers a collection of walking tours covering subjects as esoteric as Civil War madams and the birth of D.C. punk.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 2, 2023
While Stabler busies himself with mobsters and madams, the long-running “Special Victims Unit,” whose fictional plots often riff on real-world headlines, has become a lugubrious public-service announcement on modern policing.
From New York Times ● Feb. 16, 2022
Thank you for coming to Rhode Island, sirs and madams.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 28, 2018
“And please don’t tell anyone I said so, sirs and madams, but if I were you, I’d hide that bird out of sight. The conductors won’t like it, first-class tickets or not. ”
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
Ladies and gentlemen, messieurs et mesdames, le cheeseburger.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2024
But from a Scottish perspective this now has the appearance of a bizarre game of high stakes poker between mesdames May and Sturgeon.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 18, 2017
And Paul H. Canada, the costume designer, wickedly dresses Molière’s mesdames in cartoon couture.
From New York Times ● Jul. 4, 2014
Je vous prie d'agréer, mesdames, messieurs, l'expression de mes sentiments distingués", while across the Channel we'll be concluding our correspondence with "Laters, yeah?
From The Guardian ● Jul. 17, 2013
Even so, the social columnists still did not write about his wife’s dresses when he and she attended the opera, the way they described the nightly couture of mesdames Palmer, Pullman, and Armour.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
