# ms

Pronunciation: say "MIZ" /mɪz/

## Noun · Ms

1. A title used before an adult woman's name or surname, especially when indicating her marital status with Miss or Mrs. is not wanted or not possible.
   - Simple: A title used before an adult woman's name that does not show if she is married.
   - _Not knowing whether the client was married, he began the email with "Dear Ms. Okafor."_
   - _The award went to Ms. Ana Rivera, the company's chief financial officer._

## Symbol

Pronunciation: say "em-ES" /ˌɛm ˈɛs/

2. Symbol for millisecond, an SI unit of time equal to one thousandth of a second. — Symbol for millisecond, an SI unit of time equal to 10⁻³ seconds.
   - Simple: Symbol for millisecond, a unit of time equal to one thousandth of a second.
   - _The page loaded in 250 ms on a fast connection._
   - _Set the delay between the two tones to 500 ms._

## Noun · MS

3. Initialism of multiple sclerosis. — Initialism of multiple sclerosis. (pronounced: say "em-ES" /ˌɛm ˈɛs/)
   - Simple: Initialism of multiple sclerosis. People say these two letters as a short name for the illness.
   - _She has lived with MS for twenty years and still teaches full-time._
   - _Researchers are testing drugs that may slow the progress of MS._
4. Initialism of Master of Science. — Initialism of Master of Science. (pronounced: say "em-ES" /ˌɛm ˈɛs/)
   - Simple: Initialism of Master of Science. It names a science degree that comes after a first college degree.
   - _Applicants must hold an MS or a higher degree in engineering._
   - _After finishing his MS in statistics, he joined a public health agency._
8. Short for mass spectrometry, a laboratory method used to identify substances by measuring the mass-to-charge ratios of their ions.
   - Simple: Short for mass spectrometry, a lab method that identifies substances by measuring the mass-to-charge ratios of charged particles.
   - _Researchers confirmed the compound's identity by MS after separating it with liquid chromatography._
   - _Proteins in the blood samples were identified using MS._
10. Initialism of middle school. — Initialism of middle school. (pronounced: say "em-ES" /ˌɛm ˈɛs/)
   - Simple: Initialism of middle school. It means the school or the years between elementary school and high school.
   - _She taught seventh-grade science at Jefferson MS before moving to a job in the district office._
   - _Tryouts for the MS soccer team begin Monday after school._
9. Initialism of motor ship, also written M/S. (pronounced: say "em-ES" /ˌɛm ˈɛs/)
   - Simple: A short way of writing motor ship. It can also be written M/S.
   - _Rescue crews reached the MS Aurora within an hour of its distress call._
   - _Passengers aboard the MS Coral Bay spent two days at sea before reaching the islands._
11. Initialism of member of Senedd. *(Wales)* — Initialism of member of Senedd (pronounced: say "em-ES" /ˌɛm ˈɛs/)
   - Simple: Initialism of member of Senedd. It is a short way to say the full title.
   - _The MS held a surgery at the town library on Saturday morning._
   - _Several MSs from different parties signed the open letter._

## Proper noun · MS

Pronunciation: say "em-ES" /ˌɛm ˈɛs/

5. Initialism of Microsoft, the American multinational technology company founded in 1975. — Initialism of Microsoft: an American multinational technology company founded in 1975.
   - Simple: Initialism of Microsoft, a large American technology company.
   - _The course teaches spreadsheets in MS Excel and slide decks in MS PowerPoint._
   - _The IT team moved every employee's email over to MS Outlook last spring._
6. Abbreviation of Mississippi, a state of the United States. — Abbreviation of Mississippi: a state of the United States.
   - Simple: Abbreviation of Mississippi, a state of the United States. You often see it in addresses.
   - _Ship the order to 120 Main Street, Hattiesburg, MS._
   - _Her return address read Starkville, MS, so I knew she had moved._

## Noun

7. Abbreviation of manuscript. — Abbreviation of manuscript. (pronounced: say "em-ES" /ˌɛm ˈɛs/)
   - Simple: Abbreviation of manuscript. It is a short way of writing the word.
   - _Please submit the revised ms, double-spaced, by Friday._
   - _The scholar compared the printed edition with the original ms and found several changes._

## Other meanings

- (noun) Plural of m: the letter m or M, more than one of it.
- (noun) Initialism of murder-suicide.
- (noun) Initialism of morphine sulfate.
- (proper noun) Initialism of Morgan Stanley, used as the stock ticker symbol for its shares.
- (noun) Initialism of mint state, a grading term in coin collecting.
- (noun) Initialism of mitral stenosis.
- (noun) Initialism of medium shot.
- (proper noun) Abbreviation of Mato Grosso do Sul, a state of Brazil.
- (noun) Initialism of mini-sheet.
- (noun) Abbreviation of mesyl.
- (symbol) Symbol for megasecond, an SI unit of time equal to one million seconds.
- (symbol) Symbol for megasiemens, an SI unit of electrical conductance equal to one million siemens.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 8** — Since the 1600s it has served as an abbreviation of mistress, the word that also gave Miss and Mrs; at first the title said nothing about whether a woman was married. People began urging its revival in 1901, pointing out that dialects such as Southern US English already pronounced Miss and Mrs alike (/ˈmɪz/). Once Ms. magazine was founded in 1971, the title spread quickly as an alternative to Miss and Mrs., both of which require knowing and revealing a woman's marital status.
**Meaning 2** — Formed from m, the symbol for the prefix milli- (one thousandth), and s, the symbol for the second.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/ms (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).