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Mrs. (American English) [1] or Mrs (British English; [2] [3] standard English pronunciation: / ˈ m ɪ s ɪ z / ⓘ MISS-iz) is a commonly used English honorific for women, usually for those who are married and who do not instead use another title or rank, such as Doctor, Professor, President, Dame, etc.
In the English language, an honorific is a form of address conveying esteem, courtesy or respect. These can be titles prefixing a person's name, e.g.: Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Mx, Sir, Dame, Dr, Cllr, Lady, or Lord, or other titles or positions that can appear as a form of address without the person's name, as in Mr President, General, Captain, Father, Doctor, or Earl.
The meanings of both Miss and Mrs underwent transformations over time. Historically, these titles did not solely indicate marital status. [2] Even after the adoption of Miss by many adult single women in 18th-century England, Mrs continued to signify social or business standing, rather than merely marital status, until at least the mid-19th century.
Miss, Mrs., or Ms.? You’ve probably seen it on a form, or maybe even used it yourself, but you may still be wondering: What does Ms. stand for? Without context, grouping the letters “MS ...
Miss and Mrs., both derived from the then formal Mistress, like Mister did not originally indicate marital status. [8] [9] Ms. was another acceptable abbreviation for Mistress in England in the 17th and 18th centuries. [10] During the 19th century, however, Mrs. and Miss came to be associated almost exclusively with marital status. [11]
The most common honorifics in modern English are usually placed immediately before a person's name. Honorifics used (both as style and as form of address) include, in the case of a man, "Mr." (irrespective of marital status), and, in the case of a woman, previously either of two depending on marital status: "Miss" if unmarried and "Mrs." if married, widowed, or divorced; more recently, a third ...
For example, if one is writing a business letter to a woman, "Ms." is acceptable. "Mrs." denotes an adult woman who is married. "Miss" can apply to specifically unmarried women, however, the term is being replaced more and more by "Ms." [citation needed] "Miss" can apply to an unmarried woman or more generally to a younger woman.
In court (assembly, presbytery and session) a person may only be addressed as Mr, Mrs, Miss, Dr, Prof, etc. depending on academic achievement. Thus ministers are correctly addressed as, for example, Mr Smith or Mrs Smith unless they have a higher degree or academic appointment e.g. Dr Smith or Prof. Smith.