madam:
(shor form: ‘Mme’; plural: ‘madams‘ or ‘mesdames’; the opposite word in meaning to this word: sir; pronunciation: for the right pronunciation of ‘madam’, please click here)
Madam Mayor of Warwick, UK, in her ceremonial costumes
a woman who commands high level of respect — rich, well-educated or/and who works for the good of others or the society in general;
a woman costumer at a shop, office, restaurant, etc.(usually in its short form ‘ma’am’ addressed by the staff of the business establishment);
(‘madame‘ is more common in this context) a woman who is in charge of a house of female prostitutes, taking some percentage of money those prostitutes earn,
Madame Marie Tussaud (1761 – 1850) a world famous wax modeller, France
The doorman opened the door and said to Mary, “Good morning, madam!”
A police officer to a female driver: “Would you step out of your car, madam/ma’am?”
An employee to her female boss: “Sorry, madam, I didn’t know you wanted the job done by noon.”
In some places around the world, some female mayors are not comfortable with the title ‘Madam Mayor’ and so want to be called ‘Ms Mayor’ or just ‘Mayor’ with their name!
Madame Tussaud’s wax gallery in London is a famous place where most of the celebrities, dead and living, have had their wax models on displayed, which look more natural than the real people.
Though ‘madams‘ is the plural of ‘madam’, this word is rarely used to address a group of respectful women; instead, ‘ladies’ is the word much preferred.
Note 2: For an article that shows us how we come across this word, ‘Mesdames’, with letters ‘s’ silent and the same spelling and pronunciation in singular and plural forms, (in plural form in this context) in our daily news, please click here & for the right pronunciation of ‘mesdames’, please click here
