Word.ws English Dictionary

mister

Syllables: mis·terUK/ˈmɪstə//ˈmɪstəɹ/

mister noun: alternative spelling of Mister, especially when used as a form of address without a name.

Noun (1)

mister (plural misters)

  1. Alternative spelling of Mister, especially when used as a form of address without a name.
    • You may sit here, mister.
    • You keep away from my wife, mister.
  2. A man.
    • There are too many misters and not enough sisters up in this club tonight, for my taste.

Verb (1)

mister (third-person singular simple present misters, present participle mistering, simple past and past participle mistered)

  1. (ambitransitive) To address by the title of "mister".
    • “Hush! hush! Mr. Sikes,” said the Jew, trembling; “don’t speak so loud!”
      “None of your mistering,” replied the ruffian; “you always mean mischief when you come that. You know my name: out with it! I shan’t disgrace it when the time comes.”1837-39, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

Noun (2)

mister (plural misters)

  1. (obsolete) Someone's business or function; an occupation, employment, trade.
  2. (archaic, dialectal) A kind, type of.
    • The Redcrosse knight toward him crossed fast,
      To weet, what mister wight was so dismayd[…].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    • What mister-chance hath brought thee to the field Without thy sheepe?1772, William Browne, The Works of William Browne: Containing Britannia's Pastorals, page 83
  3. (obsolete) Need (of something).
    • He is richt gude, Ane man of wealth and nobill blude, Bot hes mair mister of ane Hude.1603, Ane verie excellent and delectabill treatise intitulit Philotus
    • England, that stands muckle in mister of a Reformation.1692, Jacob Curate, The Scotch Presbyterian eloquence
  4. (obsolete) Necessity; the necessary time.
    • That the portis be mendytt and lokit and reformit as mister is.1543, John Stuart, Extracts from the Council Register of the Burgh of Aberdeen
    • Which works the church had in its treasury to sell at mister.1722, John Lauder Fountainhall, Journals of Sir John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall, with his observations on public affairs and other memoranda 1665-1676

Verb (2)

mister (third-person singular simple present misters, present participle mistering, simple past and past participle mistered)

  1. (impersonal, obsolete) To be necessary; to matter.
    • As for my name, it mistreth not to tell;
      Call me the Squyre of Dames that me beseemeth well.1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.vii
    • I mister not to write mair of Bissiness to zour Lordschip; bot, as I hear, how soon the Compris of thair Factoris is hard, that thai will gif thame new Commissionis again, or utheris in thair Placis.1734, Robert Keith, The History of the Affairs of Chuch and State in Scotland, page 489

Noun (3)

mister (plural misters)

  1. A device that makes or sprays mist.
    • Odessa D. uses a mister Sunday to fight the 106-degree heat at a NASCAR race in Fontana, California.
    • Use a mister and steamer. If you're avoiding fat, use an oil mister while cooking. Using a steamer for cooking can also cut down on the amount of oil you consume.2017, Steve Alvest, The Life Actionbook

Noun (4) capitalized: Mister

Mister (plural Misters or Messieurs)

  1. With a surname.
    • This is Mister Smith, assistant to the President.
  2. With a full name.
    • This is Mister James Smith, assistant to the President.
  3. (regional or dated subservient) With a first name only.
    • Will Mister Robert be staying for dinner?
  4. An official form of address to a male president of a nation.
    • Mister President
  5. A formal address to any male official of an organization.
    • Mister Secretary
    • Mister Treasurer
  6. An official title of a military man, usually anyone below rank of captain.
  7. A male warrant officer or cadet in the United States Military Academy at West Point.
    Synonyms:
    Mr, Mr.
  8. An informal title that is used to create a nickname, placeholder name, or other moniker for a male.
    • Mister Suave
    • He's Mister Baseball around here.
  9. A title used to designate the (male) winner of certain kinds of competition.
    • The Mister Universe finals will be held in Los Angeles.
    • And now I can reveal that this year's Mister Personality is ... Stanley Cheeseworth!
  10. (colloquial, sometimes hostile, sometimes written 'mister') Used by itself as a familiar term of address to a man whose name is unknown, or sometimes even if the name is known.
    • 'Scuse me Mister, do you have the time?
    • Now you listen to me, Mister. If I see you round here again, there'll be trouble.

Proper noun capitalized: Mister

Mister

  1. A surname.

mister meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

mister in Hindi

title of adult male
श्री śrī, श्रीमान śrīmān, जी jī, साहिब sāhib, साहब sāhab

mister in Tamil

title of adult male
திரு tiru, ஐயா aiyā, சார் cār

mister in Marathi

title of adult male
श्रीयुत śrīyut

mister in Urdu

title of adult male
صاحِب sāhib
More languagesFewer languages
mister in Bengali
মহাশয়, জনাব
mister in Telugu
శ్రీ śrī
mister in Malayalam
ശ്രീ śrī
mister in Kannada
ಶ್ರೀ śrī
mister in Punjabi
بھائی bhā'ī, ਭਾਈ bhāī
mister in Gujarati
મિસ્ટર misṭar
mister in Nepali
श्रीमान् śrīmān
mister in Pashto
ښاغلی x̌âğëlay
mister in Tagalog
ginoong
mister in Arabic
سَيِّد sayyid, أُسْتَاذ ʔustāḏ, بَاشَا bāšā, جَنَاب janāb
mister in Malay
encik, tuan
mister in Indonesian
tuan, bapak
mister in Thai
นาย naai

Examples of mister in a sentence

  • Well, misters, here's the railing round the ground, and there's the paling round the tomb, eight feet deep, six feet long, and three feet wide.1855, George Musalas Colvocoresses, Four Years in the Government Exploring Expedition, J. M. Fairchild & co., page 358
  • There's only three misters aboard this ship, or, rather, there's only two.1908, Jack Brand, By Wild Waves Tossed: An Ocean Love Story, The McClure Company, page 90:
  • For als he been a mister wight Betray'd by wandering in the night To tread the circled haunt;1779, Samuel Johnson, “A Fairy Tale”, in The Works of the English Poets, page 27:
  • Now is over lait to preis my freind indeid , Quhan that I have sik mister, and sik neid: Better had bene be tyme I had overtane, To preis my freind, quhen mister had I nane.1792, John Pinkerton, Scotish Poems:

All 35 example sentences with mister

Synonyms of mister

Forms of mister

Noun
pluralmisters
pluralMisters
pluralMessieurs
Verb
third-person singular presentmisters
present participlemistering
past participlemistered
pastmistered

Plural of mister: misters

Origin of mister

Unaccented variant of master, attested since the 15th century.

From Middle English mister, myster, from Anglo-Norman mester, meister (et al.), from Latin misterium, a medieval conflation of Latin ministerium (“ministry”) with Latin mysterium (“mystery”). Doublet of métier.

mist + -er

Words formed from mister

Phrases with mister

Words that rhyme with mister

4 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about mister

What does mister mean?
Mister means alternative spelling of Mister, especially when used as a form of address without a name.
What is mister in Hindi?
Mister in Hindi is श्री (śrī), श्रीमान (śrīmān), जी (jī). See Mister meaning in Hindi.
How do you use mister in a sentence?
Well, misters, here's the railing round the ground, and there's the paling round the tomb, eight feet deep, six feet long, and three feet wide.
What part of speech is mister?
Mister can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce mister?
Mister is pronounced /ˈmɪstə/ (UK).
What is the plural of mister?
The plural of mister is misters.

Words near mister in the dictionary

  1. mistempered
  2. mistempering
  3. mistempers
  4. mistend
  5. misteous
  6. mister
  7. Mister Big
  8. Mister Bigs
  9. Mister Charlie
  10. Mister Charlies
  11. Mister Claus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mister (page history and authors); Mister (page history and authors); mister (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); بھائی (Punjabi) (page history and authors); મિસ્ટર (Gujarati) (page history and authors); श्रीमान् (Nepali) (page history and authors); ښاغلی (Pashto) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-Mr.ogg.

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