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ma'am

MAM/mæm/

Pluralma'ams

Verbma'ams, ma'aming, ma'amed

5 meanings of ma'am

Practice

  1. 1
    polite (general)noun
    Used as a polite way to speak to a woman, short for madam.

    Excuse me, ma'am, you dropped your glove.

    Thank you, ma'am, and have a nice day.

    Similarmadam

    Note
  2. 2
    to a superiornoun
    Used when you speak politely to a woman who is your boss or has a higher rank.

    “Yes, ma'am,” the young soldier said to his captain.

    The visitor bowed to the queen and said, “It is an honor to meet you, ma'am.”

    Similarmadam

    Note
  3. 3
    call a womanverbcolloquialtransitive
    To call a woman “ma'am” when you talk to her.

    Please don't ma'am me. Just call me Rosa.

    The kids ma'amed their teacher all through the class trip.

    Note

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    married womannounarchaic
    A title used for a married woman, put before her family name.

    After she married, the villagers called her Ma'am Turner.

    Ma'am Hale sat at the head of the table at every family dinner.

    Similarmissus

    Note
  2. 5
    teachernounarchaic
    In the US, a woman who teaches at a school.

    The new ma'am at the village school taught all eight grades in one room.

    Every morning the children said hello to the ma'am at the schoolhouse door.

    Similarschoolma'am

    Note

Practice

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Origin

A short form of the word madam.