Mary Sue
Mary Sue noun: a fictional character, usually female, whose implausible talents and likeability weaken the story.
Noun
Mary Sue (plural Mary Sues)
- A fictional character, usually female, whose implausible talents and likeability weaken the story.
- Bella may be a Mary Sue, but if we don't identify with her, and even if we do, there's no other interpretive place for us in the universe.2010 August 3, Ta-Nehisi Coates, “A Whole New World”, in The Atlantic
- She was a mashup of ideals that made her feel very fake; a Mary Sue who was popular, pretty, athletic, artistic, all the while loved by everyone who met her.2015 January 20, Sian Cain, “Why a non-white Nancy Drew could be amazing”, in The Guardian
- Synonyms:
- Sue
Examples of Mary Sue in a sentence
- So here's a radical suggestion: instead of being concerned about whether her Mary Sue flawlessness is a problem, why not, just this once, enjoy it for what it is?2015 December 19, Tasha Robinson, “With Star Wars' Rey, we've reached Peak Strong Female Character”, in The Verge:
- There is one, and only one, previously unheard of flaw that keeps Nanase from being the merriest of Mary Sues.2022 August 18, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive - EGS:NP (webcomic), Comic for Thursday, Aug 18, 2022:
Synonyms of Mary Sue
Forms of Mary Sue
| plural | Mary Sues |
|---|
Origin of Mary Sue
From the name of an intentionally over-the-top character in the 1973 Star Trek parody fan fiction A Trekkie's Tale by Paula Smith.
Words formed from Mary Sue
Questions about Mary Sue
- What does Mary Sue mean?
- Mary Sue means a fictional character, usually female, whose implausible talents and likeability weaken the story.
- How do you use Mary Sue in a sentence?
- So here's a radical suggestion: instead of being concerned about whether her Mary Sue flawlessness is a problem, why not, just this once, enjoy it for what it is?
- What part of speech is Mary Sue?
- Mary Sue is a noun.
- What is the plural of Mary Sue?
- The plural of Mary Sue is Mary Sues.
Words near Mary Sue in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Mary Sue (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:
Cite this entry: “Mary Sue.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mary_sue. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.