prima donna
UK/ˌpɹiːməˈdɒnə/
prima donna noun: the principal female singer or the leading lady.
Noun
prima donna (plural prima donnas or prime donne or (nonstandard) primae donnae)
- The principal female singer or the leading lady.
- The truth is, the inhabitants of that languid and luxurious city wanted some little variety; and the minister ... supported a favourite actress in the range of first-rate characters in the Opera—supported her against the united musical opinion of Naples. One night she sang worse than ever; and the...1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 255–256
- A person who considers themselves much more important than others, has high expectations of others and becomes angry when their demands are not met.
- I've had enough of watching scenes / With schizophrenic, egocentric, paranoiac, prima-donnas1971, John Lennon, “Gimme Some Truth”, in Imagine
- This year Mata has done more than anyone to give fresh belief that professional football is not only built on greed and staggering wages for its strutting prima donnas. The Manchester United and Spain midfielder, instead, has broken new ground and begun to use football’s power and wealth to help...2018 January 1, Donald McRae, “The Guardian footballer of the year 2017: Juan Mata”, in the Guardian
- Synonyms:
- diva, Miss Piggy
prima donna meaning in Malayalam and Tagalog
prima donna in Malayalam
- leading lady, leading soprano, diva
- മുഖ്യഗായിക, പ്രഥമഗായിക, പ്രധാനപാട്ടുകാരി, പ്രധാനഗായിക, ഉച്ചസ്വരം പാടുന്നകലാകാരി, താരകസ്വരം
prima donna in Tagalog
- opera singer
- primadona
Examples of prima donna in a sentence
- One night she sang worse than ever; and the next morning half the city rose up, demanding liberty and a new prima donna.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages...
- This year Mata has done more than anyone to give fresh belief that professional football is not only built on greed and staggering wages for its strutting prima donnas.2018 January 1, Donald McRae, “The Guardian footballer of the year 2017: Juan Mata”, in the Guardian:
Synonyms of prima donna
Forms of prima donna
| plural | prima donnas |
|---|---|
| plural | prime donne |
| plural (nonstandard) | primae donnae |
Origin of prima donna
From Italian prima donna (“first lady”).
Words formed from prima donna
Questions about prima donna
- What does prima donna mean?
- Prima donna means the principal female singer or the leading lady.
- What is prima donna in Malayalam?
- Prima donna in Malayalam is മുഖ്യഗായിക, പ്രഥമഗായിക, പ്രധാനപാട്ടുകാരി. See Prima donna meaning in Malayalam.
- How do you use prima donna in a sentence?
- One night she sang worse than ever; and the next morning half the city rose up, demanding liberty and a new prima donna.
- What part of speech is prima donna?
- Prima donna is a noun.
- How do you pronounce prima donna?
- Prima donna is pronounced /ˌpɹiːməˈdɒnə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of prima donna?
- The plural of prima donna is prima donnas.
Words near prima donna in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: prima donna (page history and authors); prima donna (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-prima donna.wav.
Cite this entry: “prima donna.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prima_donna. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.