-ess

/ɛs/

-ess suffix: used to form female equivalents.

Suffix (1)

-ess (noun-forming suffix, plural -esses)

Used to form female equivalents.
- actor + -ess → actress
- chanter + -ess → chantress
Synonyms:

-a, -ette, -ine, -ress, she-, -trix

Antonyms:

he-
The wife of.
- alderman + -ess → aldermaness (“alderman’s wife”)
- duke + -ess → duchess (“duke’s wife”)

Suffix (2)

-ess

(idiomatic) Used to form nouns from adjectives.

Suffix (3)

-ess

(idiomatic) Used to form proper nouns from nouns.

-ess meaning in Arabic and Myanmar

Synonyms of -ess

Antonyms

Forms of -ess

plural	-esses

Origin of -ess

From Middle English -esse, borrowed from Old French -esse, from Late Latin -issa, from Ancient Greek -ισσα (-issa). Displaced Old English -en (feminine suffix of nouns).

From Old French -esse, from Latin -itia.

From Middle English -eis, a borrowing from Old French -eis, a locative suffix descended from Latin -ensis. The French and Middle English suffixes created nouns describing a freeman of a fortified town, but in Modern English this is found only in proper nouns, particularly in certain surnames. Cognates include Italian -ese, and English English -ese is a doublet.

Words formed from -ess

Questions about -ess

What does -ess mean?: -ess means used to form female equivalents.
What is -ess in Arabic?: -ess in Arabic is ـَة (-a). See -ess meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is -ess?: -ess is a suffix.
How do you pronounce -ess?: -ess is pronounced /ɛs/.

Words near -ess in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: -ess (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl--ess.wav.

Cite this entry: “-ess.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-ess. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.