headmistress

[ hed-mis-tris ]

noun

1. a woman in charge of a private school.

headmistress

/ ˌhɛdˈmistrəs /

noun

1. a female principal of a school Gender-neutral formhead teacher

Gender Note

See -ess.

Derived Forms

• ˌheadˈmistressˌship, noun

Other Words From

• headmistress-ship noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of headmistress¹

First recorded in 1870–75; head + mistress

Example Sentences

Her headmistress was angry, complaining that her former pupil was throwing her life away.

From BBC

“Miss Trunchbull is the evil headmistress. They only exist in a children’s book.”

From Literature

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

It's been six years since "Girls" concluded, and since then Kirke has played a variety of acclaimed roles, including a strict headmistress on "Sex Education" and a charismatic author on "Conversations with Friends."

From Salon

By the time she sat down to write her autobiography, she had developed a new perspective on her confrontation a half-century earlier with Buss, the autocratic headmistress.

From New York Times