Miss

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Miss redirects here. For other uses, see MISS (disambiguation).

Miss may mean a strong feeling of wanting or longing for something once had.

To miss can mean "not to hit;" see hit.

Miss is a title, typically used for an unmarried woman. It is a contraction of mistress, originating during the 17th Century. Its counterpart, Mrs., was used for married women.

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Usage

Miss can be used in direct address to a woman, for example, May I help you, Miss? Some women consider this disrespectful and prefer ma'am (or madam in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth). In the United Kingdom, Miss is often used by schoolchildren to address female teachers without using their name, regardless of marital status.

In some styles of etiquette, the eldest daughter of a family was addressed on paper simply as Miss Doe, with the younger daughters being addressed as Miss Jane Doe and Miss Rebecca Doe. In person, as in when making introductions, the styling would have been extended to unmarried cousins with the same surname.

In the American South, Miss is also traditionally used irrespective of marital status and added to a woman's first name in direct or indirect address, as Miss Ellen from Gone with the Wind or Miss Ellie from Dallas. This form was also used in upper class households in all English-speaking countries by servants to address or refer to the unmarried ladies of the household, and occasionally in family-run businesses in the same manner; such usages are rare today.

Miss was formerly the default title for a businesswoman, but it has largely been replaced by Ms. in this context. It was (and to some extent remains) also a default title for celebrities, such as actresses (Miss Helen Hayes, Miss Amelia Earhart). Such default usage has also proved problematic; the poet Dorothy Parker was often referred to as Miss Parker, even though Parker was the name of her first husband and she herself preferred Mrs. Parker.) Later in the century, the use of "Miss" or "Mrs" became a problem for the New York Times in referring to political candidate Geraldine Ferraro, a married woman who did not use her husband's surname.

Another notable use of Miss is as the title of a beauty queen, such as Miss America, Miss Universe, or Miss Congeniality.

Other languages, such as French, Spanish and Portuguese, have borrowed the English Miss to refer to the winner of a beauty pageant.

Miss can be used in the plural, as Misses. The usage The Misses Doe was often used in the United Kingdom to refer to unmarried sisters, but this usage is now largely obsolete.

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