ma'am

1. 1.

   a woman of refinement

   “a chauffeur opened the door of the limousine for the grand lady”

   Synonymsdamemadamladygentlewoman

   Broaderwoman

   Narrowergrande damemadame

Questions about ma'am

What does ma'am mean?

ma'am means "a woman of refinement".

How many syllables are in ma'am?

ma'am has 1 syllable: ma'am. In IPA it is /ˈmæm/.

What is another word for ma'am?

Close synonyms include dame, madam, lady, gentlewoman. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is ma'am a common word?

ma'am is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.