Madam

How to spell madam

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce madam

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does madam mean?

1. nounA polite or formal term used to address or refer to a woman, often a customer or a person of authority.

Madam in a sentence

• The waiter asked whether madam would like to see the dessert menu.

• The letter opened with a respectful greeting to the chairwoman, addressing her as madam.

Where does madam come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English in the 1200s from the Old French phrase ma dame, which meant literally 'my lady'. The first part, ma, was simply the French word for 'my', and dame descended from the Latin domina, the feminine of dominus, meaning 'lord' or 'master of the household'; domina itself meant 'mistress of the house'. Over time the two French words fused into a single English title used to address a woman politely, parallel to the way 'madame' and 'mademoiselle' still work in French. The same domina root survives in the everyday words 'dominate' and 'dominion', a reminder that the polite address once carried the sense of a woman in command of her own house. Because English absorbed the term without the extra French e, the modern spelling ends simply in -am, which is the small trap for writers who expect the French 'madame'.

How the word is built

• ma- (from ma: 'my')
• dam (from dame: lady, from Latin domina 'mistress of the house')