mister

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /ˈmɪstər/ UK /ˈmɪstə/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a form of address for a man; informal title or term of address

Excuse me, mister, could you tell me the way to the station?

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a form of address for a... sir gentleman gent

Opposites

missus madam

Word family

Related forms master mistress missymistral

Simplified etymology

Mister developed in the early 16th century as a weakened form of master. Master ultimately comes from Latin magister, “master,” which also gave rise to magistrate through Latin magistratus, “administrator.”

Etymology

An unstressed variant of master, from Old French maistre, from Latin magister ('chief, teacher'), from magis ('more, greater').

maistre Old French magister Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society Word Formation & Derivatives Register & Style

External links

# mister

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈmɪstər/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈmɪstə/

## Meanings
1. a form of address for a man; informal title or term of address

## Examples
- Excuse me, mister, could you tell me the way to the station?

## Synonyms
- sir
- gentleman
- gent

## Antonyms
- missus
- madam

## Related Forms
- master
- mistress
- missy
- mistral

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: maistre
- Root: magister

## Etymology
An unstressed variant of master, from Old French maistre, from Latin magister ('chief, teacher'), from magis ('more, greater').

## AI Etymology
Mister has this etymological development: An unstressed variant of master, from Old French maistre, from Latin magister ('chief, teacher'), from magis ('more, greater'). The etymological trail includes Old French maistre, Latin magister. The same word family includes master, mistress, missy, mistral. Its current noun use means "a form of address for a man; informal title or term of address".

## Topics
- People & Society
- Word Formation & Derivatives
- Register & Style

markdown