Word.ws English Dictionary

sir

UK/sɜː//sɜɹ/

sir noun: a man of a higher rank or position.

Noun (1)

sir (plural sirs)

  1. A man of a higher rank or position.
  2. A respectful term of address to a man of higher rank or position, particularly
    • Jeeves: Foreign travel often liberates emotions best kept in check, sir. The air of North America is notoriously stimulating in this regard, as witness the regrettable behavior of its inhabitants in 1776.
      B. Wooster: Hm? What happened in 1776, Jeeves?
      Jeeves: I prefer not to dwell on it, if it's...1991 May 12, “Kidnapped!”, in Jeeves and Wooster, Series 2, Episode 5
  3. to a knight or other low member of the peerage.
    • Just be careful. He gets whingy now if you don't address him as Sir John.
  4. to a superior military officer.
    • Sir, yes sir.
  5. to a teacher.
    • Here's my report, sir.
  6. A respectful term of address to an adult male (often older), especially if his name or proper title is unknown.
    • Excuse me, sir, do you know the way to the art museum?
    • Knowledge, sir, should be free to all!1967 November 3, I, Mudd (Star Trek) (Science Fiction), Roger C. Carmel (actor), Paramount Domestic Television

Verb

sir (third-person singular simple present sirs, present participle sirring, simple past and past participle sirred)

  1. (informal, transitive) To address another individual using "sir".
    • Sir, yes, sir! —Don't you sir me, private! I work for a living!
    • Don't "Sir" me, young man, you have no idea who you're dealing with!1997, Ed Solomon, Men in Black, spoken by Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones)

Noun (2) capitalized: SIR

SIR (countable and uncountable, plural SIRs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of surface insulation resistance.
  2. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of silent information regulator.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: SIR

SIR

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Special Intensive Revision, a voter-roll revision process in India.
    • The Kerala government has moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Election Commission (EC) of India to defer the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls of the State. The State said the conduct of the “cumbersome” SIR process from November 4 to December 4...2025 November 18, Krishnadas Rajagopal, “Kerala approaches Supreme Court to postpone Special Intensive Revision. The State said the 'cumbersome' SIR will coincide with the local bodies election and...

Adjective capitalized: SIR

SIR (not comparable)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of susceptible-infected/infectious-removed/recovered.

Noun (3) capitalized: Sir

Sir (plural Sirs)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of sir.
    • “Every minute,” continued M. Krempe with warmth, “every instant that you have wasted on those books is utterly and entirely lost. You have burdened your memory with exploded systems, and useless names. Good God! in what desert land have you lived, where no one was kind enough to inform you that...1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter II, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding...
    • The family tree boasts an astonishing array of celebrated historical figures from the prophet Isaiah to Sir Isaiah Berlin, from Felix Mendelssohn to Karl Marx and Moses Montefiore. The list also includes Yehudi Menuhin, Helena Rubinstein, the Rothschilds and even Rosenstein himself.2004 October 24, Bill Gladstone, “The oldest family in the world”, in Jewish Telegraphic Agency
  2. (UK) The titular prefix given to a knight or baronet.
  3. (Philippines, colloquial, informal) A respectful term of address or reference to a man of higher rank or position before the man's given name or nickname.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Sir

Sir

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of Syr.
    • The Kara-tau, or "Black Mountain," the last spur of the Tian-shan towards the north-west, seldom exceeds 6,500 feet in height, but is geographically of great importance, as forming the water-parting between the Sir and Chu basins. It also abounds most in coal, iron, copper, and argentiferous lead.1884, Élisée Reclus, translated by Ernest George Ravenstein et al., The Earth and Its Inhabitants, Vol. VI, p. 187

sir meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sir in Hindi

address to any male, especially if his name or proper address is unknown
श्रीमान śrīmān, श्री śrī, सर sar, साहिब sāhib, महोदय mahoday, जनाब janāb

sir in Tamil

address to any male, especially if his name or proper address is unknown
ஐயா aiyā, சார் cār

sir in Marathi

सर, साहेब

sir in Urdu

address to any male, especially if his name or proper address is unknown
صاحِب sāhib, صاحَب sāhab, جَناب janāb, سَر sar
More languagesFewer languages
sir in Bengali
জনাব jonab
sir in Telugu
సర్, సార్
sir in Malayalam
സാർ, സർ, സാറിന്
sir in Kannada
ಸರ್, ಸಾರ್, ಸರ್ಗೆ
sir in Punjabi
ਸਰ
sir in Gujarati
સાહેબ, સર, સરને
sir in Odia
ସାର୍, ମହାଶଯ଼
sir in Nepali
श्रीमान srimān, श्री sri
sir in Pashto
آقا aqā, آغا āǧā, ښاغلى x̌āǧᶕlay, صاحب sāheb
sir in Arabic
أُسْتَاذ ʔustāḏ, سَيِّد sayyid, سَيِّدِي sayyidī, حَضْرَتَك ḥaḍratak
sir in Malay
tuan, ustaz
sir in Indonesian
tuan, ustaz
sir in Vietnamese
ngài, ông
sir in Myanmar
ဦး u:, ခင်ဗျာ hkangbya, ရှင် hrang

Examples of sir in a sentence

  • “Queer language, that, sir,” said the officer. “It was Dutch to me.”
  • Sir Gerald was moving slower; his wounds were beginning to tell.
  • One more, sir, then I'll have to stop serving you – rules of the house, I'm afraid.

All 40 example sentences with sir

Forms of sir

Noun
pluralsirs
alternative Indiasaar
pluralSIRs
pluralSirs
Verb
third-person singular presentsirs
present participlesirring
past participlesirred
pastsirred

Plural of sir: sirs

Origin of sir

From Middle English sir, unstressed form of sire, borrowed from Old French sire (“master, sir, lord”), from Latin senior (“older, elder”), from senex (“old”). Doublet of seigneur, seignior, senhor, senior, señor, senyor, signore, and sire.

Words formed from sir

Phrases with sir

10 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with sir

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sir

What does sir mean?
Sir means a man of a higher rank or position.
What is sir in Hindi?
Sir in Hindi is श्रीमान (śrīmān), श्री (śrī), सर (sar). See Sir meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is sir?
Sir can be a noun, a verb, a proper noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce sir?
Sir is pronounced /sɜː/ (UK).
What is the plural of sir?
The plural of sir is sirs.

Words near sir in the dictionary

  1. Siqueiros
  2. Siqueiroses
  3. Siquijor
  4. Siquijorian
  5. Siquijorians
  6. sir
  7. Sir David's long-beaked echidna
  8. Sir David's long-beaked echidnae
  9. Sir David's long-beaked echidnas
  10. Sir Francis Drake Channel
  11. Sir Humphrey

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sir (page history and authors); SIR (page history and authors); Sir (page history and authors); sir (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sir (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sir (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sir (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sir (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sir (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sir (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model 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: en-us-sir.ogg.

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