Word.ws English Dictionary

guv'nor

guv'nor noun: an informal form of address to a man; see guv. This version is especially likely to be applied to the owner of a business or the landlord of a public house.

Noun

guv'nor (plural guv'nors)

  1. (Ireland, UK) An informal form of address to a man; see guv. This version is especially likely to be applied to the owner of a business or the landlord of a public house.
    • “Now we have to get out of here before the fuzz start sniffing around. Fingers, get the Rolls resprayed and change the number plates in case they trace it.”
      “Yes, guv’nor.”2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN

Forms of guv'nor

pluralguv'nors

Words formed from guv'nor

Questions about guv'nor

What does guv'nor mean?
Guv'nor means an informal form of address to a man; see guv. This version is especially likely to be applied to the owner of a business or the landlord of a public house.
What part of speech is guv'nor?
Guv'nor is a noun.
What is the plural of guv'nor?
The plural of guv'nor is guv'nors.

Words near guv'nor in the dictionary

  1. guv
  2. guv'ment
  3. guv'ments
  4. guv'mint
  5. guv'mints
  6. guv'nor
  7. guv'nors
  8. guvacine
  9. guvacoline
  10. guverment
  11. guverments

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: guv'nor (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.

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Cite this entry: “guv'nor.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/guv%27nor. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.