priestess
Americannoun
-
priestesses
plural
Gender
See -ess.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of priestess
Explanation
A priestess is a female religious figure. In ancient Greece, a priestess often dressed in the style of a goddess, wearing white robes and carrying a long staff. The word priestess is a feminine version of priest, which stems from the Old English prēost and its Greek root, presbyteros, "an elder." While hundreds of years ago a priestess was simply a female priest, today's Christians use priest whether they're talking about a man or a woman. The word priestess is used for ancient religions and occasionally pagan or Wiccan religious leaders.
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:
The Medea we meet here is a teenage princess of Colchis infatuated with Jason—as well as a sorceress, a priestess of Hecate and the semidivine granddaughter of the sun god Helios.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2026
He was working in the grove, on the Iledi Ontooto shrine roof, when Susanne Wenger, the Austrian-Nigerian artist and Yoruba priestess, said to him: "It is wood carving you'll be doing."
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2026
The ghost tours in New Orleans are borderline legendary, with popular offerings focusing on the supernatural, New Orleans’ “Casket Girls,” and on the origins of Marie Laveau’s rise to notoriety as a voodoo priestess.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2025
Cassandra A ancient Trojan priestess who was fated to be a prophet but never believed, most famously about Greek troops hiding inside the Trojan Horse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 19, 2024
The red priestess slid closer to the king.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
A magazine account admiringly described Osterberg's students, typically in their late teens, as "teachers in embryo... destined high priestesses of a new cult".
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
Millennial feminism, Helen Lewis writes in the Atlantic, eventually revealed “the gap between what its high priestesses demanded and what they were able to endure themselves.”
From Slate ● Mar. 31, 2026
Mosaku: I spoke to hoodoo priestesses and that was really my main research, was kind of the faith, because that is who she is.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025
But a rainy weather forecast means the sun's rays will not be able to light the parabolic mirror used by actresses in the garb of ancient priestesses.
From Barron's ● Nov. 25, 2025
The acolytes were clad in robes of pale yellow and bright orange, priests and priestesses in red.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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