Mister

How to spell mister

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce mister

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mister mean?

1. nounA courteous title placed before a man's name, usually written in its abbreviated form Mr.
2. nounAn informal way of addressing or referring to a man whose name is unknown.

Mister in a sentence

• The letter was addressed to mister Thompson in the accounts department.

• The parking attendant told the driver that he could not leave the van there, mister.

• The receptionist asked whether mister Patel had arrived for his appointment.

• A young boy ran up and asked the mister at the gate for directions.

Where does mister come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Mister is a relaxed, unstressed pronunciation of 'master', which English inherited from the Latin magister, meaning 'a chief, head, or teacher', literally 'the greater one' (built on magis, 'more'). 'Master' arrived in Old English partly from Latin directly and was later reinforced through Old French maistre, and for centuries it served as a respectful title for a man of rank or skill. When the title was spoken quickly before a name, the long stressed vowel of 'master' softened into the casual 'mister', and by the 1500s and 1600s this weakened pronunciation had become a separate word and the everyday courtesy title for adult men. The written abbreviation 'Mr' preserves the older 'master' spelling, which is exactly why the full word's plain 'i' and single 's' can feel surprising. The same magister root still lives on in 'magistrate', 'maestro', and 'magisterial'.

How the word is built

• mister (a weakened, unstressed form of 'master')
• agentive ending -ter