headmistress
Americannoun
-
headmistresses
plural
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.
See Examples For:
Student-made memes depict the administrator behind the proposal as Gandalf from “Lord of the Rings” saying “You shall not pass!” or as Dolores Umbridge, the tyrannical Hogwarts headmistress from “Harry Potter.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026
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
Actress Siobhan McSweeney is best known as Derry Girls' imposing headmistress Sister Michael, a nun almost as large in stature as in character, and an imposing figure in both respects.
From BBC ● Feb. 8, 2024
She’s the headmistress of a school that is literally collapsing, and her marriage to Dave is in peril because the couple has buried their grief after losing a child.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2023
What if the bird my grandfather wanted me to find was actually the woman who’d rescued him—the headmistress of the children’s home?
From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs
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
The headmasters and headmistresses around the walls seemed less impressed by Dumbledore’s decision; Harry saw a few of them shaking their heads and Phineas Nigellus actually snorted.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
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.
