Word.ws English Dictionary

primae donnae

primae donnae is the plural of prima donna.

Meaning of prima donna

Noun

prima donna (plural prima donnas or prime donne or (nonstandard) primae donnae)

  1. (opera) 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
  2. (derogatory, informal) 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
    Synonyms:
    diva, Miss Piggy

Origin of primae donnae

From a misunderstanding of prima donna as a Latin term rather than an Italian one.

Questions about primae donnae

What is primae donnae the plural of?
Primae donnae is the plural of prima donna.

Words near primae donnae in the dictionary

  1. primacy
  2. primacy effect
  3. primacy effects
  4. primadonna
  5. primadonnas
  6. primae donnae
  7. primae noctis
  8. primaeval
  9. primaeval forest
  10. primaeval forests
  11. primaevality

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: primae donnae (page history and authors); prima donna (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: “primae donnae.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/primae_donnae. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.