dame
noun
(in Britain)
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dame
American
[deym]
/ deɪm /
noun
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dames
plural
-
(initial capital letter) (in Britain)
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the official title of a female member of the Order of the British Empire, equivalent to that of a knight.
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the official title of the wife of a knight or baronet.
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(formerly) a form of address to any woman of rank or authority.
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a matronly woman of advanced age; matron.
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Slang: Sometimes Offensive. a term used to refer to a woman.
Some dame cut me off and almost caused an accident.
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Ecclesiastical. a title of a nun in certain orders.
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a mistress of a dame-school.
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Archaic. the mistress of a household.
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Archaic. a woman of rank or authority, especially a female ruler.
dame
1
British
/ deɪm /
noun
-
(formerly) a woman of rank or dignity; lady
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a nun who has taken the vows of her order, esp a Benedictine
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archaic a matronly or elderly woman
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slang a woman
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Also called: pantomime dame. the role of a comic old woman in a pantomime, usually played by a man
Dame
2
British
/ deɪm /
noun
-
the title of a woman who has been awarded the Order of the British Empire or any of certain other orders of chivalry
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the legal title of the wife or widow of a knight or baronet, placed before her name Compare Lady
Dame Judith
Sensitive Note
Dame is sometimes perceived as insulting when used to refer generally to a woman, unless it is a woman of rank or advanced age.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dame
1175–1225; Middle English < Old French < Latin domina, feminine of dominus lord, master
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:
She was a made a dame in 2014 for services to the arts and charity.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
The “grand dame diva of culture, divahood and porcine glamour” Miss Piggy, was honored at the show, where she showed up, naturally, in a pink dress and feather boa.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
A true Welsh icon, Bassey was made a dame in 1999 for her services to entertainment.
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2026
Twila is, in Hollywood parlance, a “firecracker” — you know, the tough-talking dame who inevitably nurses a wounded heart.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2026
They were boarding a train for Oxford to meet Dorothy Hodgkin, the grande dame of crystallography.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Sisters Anita Marie and Maria Francine, biological twins with the Sisters of Notre Dame, stood at the door to the ICE office wearing their traditional habits.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
"I think somebody has to just seize the thing and get it sorted," Dame Vera said.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Award-winning space scientist and science communicator Dame Dr Maggie Aderin will host the broadcast.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026
USC coach Lincoln Riley said the Trojans could not compromise on scheduling all future games against Notre Dame early in the season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026
As a young student he traveled to Paris on a mare that was as large as six elephants, and hung the bells of Notre Dame on the mare’s neck as jingles.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
West, one of the grande dames of the movement, got her start at Seattle alt-weekly the Stranger and spent years excoriating fatphobia, online misogyny, and male entitlement for the ur-millennial-feminist site Jezebel.
From Slate ● Mar. 31, 2026
Mattie Ross is one of the toughest dames in American literature.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
“Of course it’s daunting to be following in the footsteps of Prue Leith and Mary Berry before her, great dames both, but I’m also bubbling with excitement.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 26, 2026
The grandes dames of British theatre reminisced about their lives and careers, with searing honesty and humility.
From BBC ● Jan. 17, 2025
That when dames had dandruff, it was often just flakes from their hairspray.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
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.
