Word.ws English Dictionary

ladies and gents

ladies and gents is the informal form of ladies and gentlemen.

Meaning of ladies and gentlemen

Noun

ladies and gentlemen pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) Used as a vocative to address an audience.
    • […] a Master of Ceremonies' words "Ladies and gentlemen" […] interpellates those being addressed as an audience, and one that is differentiated by gender.1996, “The Cambridge History of American Literature”, in Sacvan Bercovitch, editor, Poetry and criticism, 1940-1995, volume 8, page 408
  2. (euphemistic, plural, plural-only, rare) Public toilets: a ladies' room and a gentlemen's room.
    • There are quays there and lamps and some squares of grass; a ladies and gentlemen, and a cinema.1941, Joyce Cary, chapter XLIV, in Herself Surprised, page 108

Questions about ladies and gents

What is ladies and gents the informal form of?
Ladies and gents is the informal form of ladies and gentlemen.

Words near ladies and gents in the dictionary

  1. ladhood
  2. ladie
  3. ladied
  4. ladies
  5. ladies and gentlemen
  6. ladies and gents
  7. ladies and germs
  8. Ladies Bountiful
  9. ladies first
  10. ladies man
  11. Ladies Mayoress

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ladies and gents (page history and authors); ladies and gentlemen (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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