lady

From Middle English lady, laddy, lafdi, lavedi, from Old English hlǣfdīġe (“mistress of a household, wife of a lord, lady”, literally “bread-kneader”), from hlāf (“bread, loaf”) + dǣġe (“kneader”), related to Old English dǣġe (“maker of dough”) (whence dey (“dairymaid”)). Compare also lord. More at loaf, dairy, dough. Unrelated to lad.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈleɪ.di/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈleɪ.di/, [ˈleɪ.ɾi]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈlæɪ.di/, [ˈlæɪ.ɾi]
• Hyphenation: la‧dy
• Rhymes: -eɪdi

lady (plural ladies)

1. (historical) The mistress of a household.
2. A woman of breeding or higher class, a woman of authority.

   "I would like the dining room to be fully set by tonight; would you do so?" "Yes, my lady."

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     ‘ […] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. […]’.

3. The feminine of lord, a lordess.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 283, column 2:

     Of all theſe bounds euen from this Line, to this, / With ſhadowie Forreſts, and with Champains rich’d / With plenteous Riuers, and wide-ſkirted Meades / We make thee Lady.

   • 1848, James Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfaul, 6th edition, Boston: Ticknor and Fields, published 1858:

     ’T was the proudest hall in the North Countree,
     And never its gates might opened be,
     Save to lord or lady of high decree […]

4. A title for someone married to a lord or gentleman.
5. A title that can be used instead of the formal terms of marchioness, countess, viscountess, or baroness.
6. (polite or used by children) A woman: an adult female human.

   Please direct this lady to the soft furnishings department.

7. (in the plural) A polite reference or form of address to women.

   Ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to be here today. Follow me, ladies!

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 58:

     The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.

8. (slang) Used to address a female.

   Hey, lady, move your car!

   Hey, ladies, how are you doing?

9. (informal) A wife or girlfriend; a sweetheart.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 59, column 2:

     It is my Lady, O it is my Loue, O that ſhe knew ſhe were,
     She ſpeakes, yet ſhe ſayes nothing, what of that?

   • 1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC:

     But nothing could now exceed my confusion upon seeing the gentleman and his lady enter

10. A woman to whom the particular homage of a knight was paid; a woman to whom one is devoted or bound.
    • 1666, Edmund Waller, “Instructions to a Painter”, in The Works of Edmund Walker‎^[1], Dublin: W. G. Jones, published 1768, page 154:

      The ſoldier here his waſted ſtore ſupplies,
      And takes new valor from the Ladies’ eyes.

11. (slang) A queen (the playing card).
12. (attributive, with a professional title) Who is a woman.

    A lady doctor.

    • 1964, James Holledge, Sex and the Australian Teenager, Melbounre: Horwitz Publications, page 15:

      The recent disclosures caused one headmistress of a city college to arrange for sex instructions to be given by a lady doctor to various forms.

13. (Wicca) Alternative form of Lady.
14. (archaic) gastric mill, the triturating apparatus in the stomach of a lobster, consisting of calcareous plates; so called from a fancied resemblance to a seated female figure.
15. (UK, slang) A five-pound note. (Rhyming slang, Lady Godiva for fiver.)
16. (slang, chiefly in the plural) A woman’s breast.
17. (chess, slang, rare) A queen.

• English terms starting with “lady”

• fakaleitī
• Lady

• Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. →ISBN

lady (third-person singular simple present ladies, present participle ladying, simple past and past participle ladied)

1. To address as “lady”.
   • 1897, Macmillan’s Magazine, page 13, column 1:

     “ […] When I am dead ye’ll mind I said it, my leddy.” “Ah, Elspeth, but do not lady me; say Christine, just wee Christine. […] ”

   • 1906, Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine: A Popular Journal of General Literature, page 374:

     “I thought you would never come, Lady Mary,” and he kissed her again. “Why will you persist in ladying me? Have I not told you—stop, now, will you?” and she pushed his mouth away. “Have I not told you as many times as you have seen me to call me Mary only?”

   • 1928, The Letters of Mary Nisbet of Dirleton, Countess of Elgin, New York, N.Y.: D Appleton and Company, page 276:

     I see Bey still continues jealous of poor Mou; does she still go by that name? In Greek it means “my” and her Paramanas always called her Lady Mary Mou, so we called her Mou. I hope you admire my teaching you Greek. I beg you will break Bruce of ladying her, if it should grow up with him it would be detestable.

   • 2006, Jim Butcher, Cursor’s Fury: Book Three of the Codex Alera, New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, page 658:

     ‘Then, Lady Placida, there is something I wish to ask of you.’ ‘Only,’ she said sternly, ‘if you stop Ladying me. I have a name, dear.’

   • 2013, Brenda Joyce, A Rose in the Storm, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 130:

     “Lady!” “No, do not ‘lady’ me!” Margaret admonished.

   • 2018, Skye MacKinnon, Winter Princess (Daughter of Winter, Book Two), Peryton Press:

     “How can I help, my lady?” “Stop the ladying. […]”

• lord
• gentleman
• ladies' room
• broad

• DALY, Daly, Dyal, Lyda, layd, yald

Borrowed from English lady, from Middle English lady, from Old English hlǣfdīġe.

• IPA^(key): /lɛ.di/ ~ /le.di/

lady f (plural ladies or ladys)

1. lady (wife of a British lord; important woman, usually British)

   Synonyms: dame, madame

• “lady”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Unadapted borrowing from English lady.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛ.di/, /ˈle.di/^[1]
• Rhymes: -ɛdi, -edi

lady f (invariable)

1. lady (wife of a lord; important woman)

• dama, donna (archaic), signora

• laddy, lade, ladi, ladie, ladij, ladye, lavedi, lavedy
• lafdi, leafdi, leawedi, lefdi, lehedi (Early Middle English); lafvedi, læfdi, lævedi, leivedi, leofdi (Laȝamon's Brut); laffdiȝ (Ormulum)
• lafedy, laday, lavydy, laydy (Late Middle English)
• ledy, lefdy, lefdye, levede, levedi, levedy, levidi (especially East Saxon, West Midland, Yorkshire); lhevedi, lhevedy (Kent)

Inherited from Old English hlǣfdiġe, hlāfdiġe, in turn from hlāf (“bread, loaf”) + dǣġe (“maid”).

The variants in /aː/ and /ɛ̞ː/ possibly originate from hlāfdiġe and hlǣfdiġe respectively; note that the vowel has been shortened due to trisyllabic shortening and then relengthened due to open-syllable lengthening.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlaːdiː/, /ˈladiː/, (especially Early Middle English) /ˈlav(ə)diː/
• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛ̞ːdiː/, /ˈlɛv(ə)diː/ (especially East Saxon, Kent, West Midland, Yorkshire)

lady (plural ladies, genitive singular ladies or lady)

1. A woman with authority or leadership:
   1. A lady (mistress of a household)
      • c. 1382, John Wycliffe, transl., Wycliffe's Bible, Genesis 16:7–9:

        And whanne the aungel of the Lord hadde foundun hir biside the welle of water in wildirnes, the which is in the / weye of Sur in desert, he seide to hir, Agar, the hand mayden of Saray, whens comyst thow, and whithir gost thow? / The which answeride, Fro the face of Saray my ladi I flee.

        And when the angel of the Lord had found her in the wilderness beside the spring of water, which is in the desert on the way to Shur, he said to her, "Hagar, handmaiden of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?" She answered, "I am fleeing from the face of Sarai, my lady".

   2. A lady (noblewoman or female monarch).
   3. A woman who manages an abbey or inn.
2. The wife of a noble or monarch.
3. A polite way to address a noble or honoured woman.
   • a. 1333, “Poem 7: Ave maris stella; Fol. 207r-v”, in William Herebert, transl., Opera (British Library MS. Add. 46919)‎^[2], Hereford; republished as The Works of William Herebert, OFM (Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse), [Ann Arbor]: University of Michigan, a. 2018:

     Hayl, Leuedy, se-stœrre bryht, / Godes moder, edy wyht, / Mayden euer vurst and late, / Of heueneriche sely ʒáte.

     Hail, Lady, bright sea-star, / God's mother, blessed being, / maiden always [from] first to last, / the Kingdom of Heaven's holy gate.

4. (by extension) Any woman.
5. A female deity (or the Virgin Mary).

• ladyschipe

• English: lady (see there for further descendants)
• Middle Scots: lady
  • Scots: lady, leddy
• Yola: laady
• → Icelandic: lafði

• “lādī(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Unadapted borrowing from English lady, from Middle English lady, laddy, lafdi, lavedi, from Old English hlǣfdīġe.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛj.di/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛjdi
• Syllabification: la‧dy

lady f (indeclinable)

1. Lady (aristocratic title for a woman)
2. lady (wife of a lord)
3. lady (woman of breeding and authority)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• IPA^(key): /ˈla.dɘ/
• Rhymes: -adɘ
• Syllabification: la‧dy
• Homophone: Lady

lady f

1. inflection of lada:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative plural

• “lady”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[3] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “lady”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[4] (in Polish)

Unadapted borrowing from English lady.

lady f (plural lady)

1. lady

Unadapted borrowing from English lady.

• IPA^(key): /ˈleidi/ [ˈlei̯.ð̞i]
• Rhymes: -eidi

lady f (plural ladies)

1. lady (wife of a lord; important woman)

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

• “lady”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Unadapted borrowing from English lady, from Middle English lady, laddy, lafdi, lavedi, from Old English hlǣfdīġe.

lady c

1. Lady (aristocratic title for a woman)
2. lady (wife of a lord)