mademoiselle
Americannoun
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mademoiselles,
plural
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mesdemoiselles
plural
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(often initial capital letter) a French title of respect equivalent to “Miss”, used in speaking to or of a girl or unmarried woman: Mlle.
Mademoiselle Lafitte.
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a French governess.
noun
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a young unmarried French girl or woman: usually used as a title equivalent to Miss
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a French teacher or governess
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mademoiselle
1635–45; < French; Old French ma damoisele my noble young lady; see madame, damsel
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:
Madame or mademoiselle, the française of life-style literature represents a very limited idea of the Parisienne.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 19, 2019
A maid carries away the breakfast tray of a pretty young mademoiselle lounging in bed behind her.
From New York Times ● Aug. 14, 2014
As she lost consciousness she recalled the doctor saying: "Au revoir, monsieur," and when she awoke, she heard: "Bonjour, mademoiselle."
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2013
Sheen broke into a great smile with, 'Ah, mademoiselle, enchante de vous revoir.'
From Time Magazine Archive
“That mademoiselle has made good use of her time, and the result is charming,” replied Laurie, bowing with his hand on his heart and an admiring look.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
Linux lads and Mac mademoiselles, your time has come to play Inscryption!
From The Verge ● Jun. 23, 2022
There may have been a subtle throwback to the those well-brought up “bon chic bon genre” mademoiselles, before the 1968 Paris student uprising.
From New York Times ● Mar. 2, 2011
"Eef mademoiselles, your aunts, should get to hear—" "Oh, I won't tell."
From Mary Minds Her Business by George Weston
I flew downstairs and found not only children in every shape and form, but mothers in big hats and trailing skirts, and Frauleins in small hats and skirts curtailed, mademoiselles and nannies.
From The Professional Aunt by Mary C.E. Wemyss
"To what am I indebted for the honour of this visit, mademoiselles?"
From My Strangest Case by Guy Boothby
At 300 meters, neither slackening nor quickening their punishing pace, they passed the mesdemoiselles.
From Time Magazine Archive
It is a rough place, mesdemoiselles," he said, removing his cap, "but it is better than the prisons at Nantes.
From In the Reign of Terror by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
"This is a wet night, madame and mesdemoiselles," he observed.
From Old Kaskaskia by Mary Hartwell Catherwood
In Paris, as in London, troops of acquaintance came forward to receive 'Madame Maria et mesdemoiselles ses sœurs,' as they used to be announced.
From A Book of Sibyls Miss Barbauld, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs Opie, Miss Austen by Anne Thackeray Ritchie
I had heard hundreds of such little minced, docked, dry phrases, from the pursed-up coral lips of a score of self-possessed, self-sufficing misses and mesdemoiselles.
From Villette by Charlotte Brontë
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.
