Meaning & use
mistress
Last updated
A woman who has a long-term romantic relationship with a man who is married to someone else.
See it in a sentence
The scandal broke when the senator's mistress went public with their affair.
The novel follows the secret life of a wealthy man's mistress in the 1920s.
A note on using this word
In British English, 'mistress' is also an older term for a female schoolteacher or the female head of a household, a sense rarely used in American English today.
Another way to use it
2. noun
A woman who has control over, or great skill in, a particular activity.
She was a mistress of disguise, able to blend into any crowd unnoticed.
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