Difference between Miss and Ms. – Imagine a situation when you are outside and you really need some help there for any purpose like to clear an address or anything, so there is a female standing there. Now what, would you call her if you don’t know her name, would you prefer Miss or Ms and do you know the difference between miss and Ms?
Well, if you have the correct answer then you will be fine but if you don’t know the difference between Miss and Ms. Then you may face embarrassment in public. When it’s about calling a man, then it’s easy as we all know using Mr. or Sir but for a female, it is pretty difficult if you don’t know the rules.
To keep yourself from the embarrassing moment, you need to know the difference between miss and ms. titles. For women, it all depends on their marital status, if she is a lady or if she is unmarried then you use Miss. Ms. can be preferred for a woman that may be married or unmarried, actually, it is an old term that originated in the 1900s.
What Is The Difference Between Miss And Ms?
Let’s take a look here and know in detail about the difference between miss and ms.
Ms.
You all know that Ms. is an English word that should be used just before a woman’s full name if she is married or not. Though you can also use it without any name, which means Ms. also goes well when you don’t know the name.
The word is as popular as Miss and Mrs. and is being used since the 17th century. Actually, in formal the word ms is Mistress that is used for a woman that is in the business world or works as an entrepreneur.
The title keeps the same value as the male words used for honor as Sir and Mr. that can also be used for a man whether he is married or unmarried.
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Miss
In the difference between miss and ms, Miss is also an honored and English word. You can use this word for woman only if she is unmarried, so next time if you see a lady that is unmarried you can use this term Miss without being hesitated for a second.
In US, you can use this honored word to address a girl that is under 18, this word is also well-known in the fashion industry as for Miss World, Miss Universe, and some other titles.
So all in all, Miss means a young lady who is unmarried. I think I have cleared out your confusion about the difference between miss and ms.
Mrs
After discussing out the difference between miss and ms, let’s go to the title Mrs. this title refers especially a married woman and there is no way that you can use it for an unmarried woman.
Though some ladies can have this title before their names even after getting divorced or if they are widowed, but this was originated only for married women.
There two ways of using Mrs, one with a period at the end of the title and one without a period. When you’re in the UK, you use it without my period, but in the US, this title completed with a period at the end.
So now you know the difference between Miss and Ms and even for Mrs. So you can have your conversation with the ladies without facing embarrassments.
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Difference between Miss, Ms. and Mrs. More Precisely
Miss | Ms | Mrs |
| The title miss is completely for unmarried woman or young ladies.
| Ms. can be used for the women either married or unmarried, this is mostly for business purposes.
| The word Mrs is always used for a married woman.
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| Other than using for young or unmarried ladies, it is also a term that students use for their female teachers.
| You can use Ms. only for a woman who is from a business circle or who is an entrepreneur. | It can also be used for a woman who is married and work for any sector. But mostly to address only a married woman. |
| The correct way to pronounce Miss is /ˈmɪs/ | Ms. can be pronounced as /ˈmɪz/, /məz/, or /məs/ | The pronunciation for the word MRS goes like missus and “r” is a silent letter. |
| The plural of the word is Misses. | The plural word is Mss. or Mses. | The plural for the word Mrs is Mesdames |
| The original word was Mistress from which the Miss was derived. | Ms. is an original title in itself; it was created for businesswoman and to avoid their marital status. | It was also derived from the word mistress to address married woman by breaking Mistress into Mrs. You can use it Either with the last name or with full name also.
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Origin of Miss and Ms
So now you have a clear idea on the difference between miss and ms, here is the history for these words. The term Miss was first used in the 17th century for all unmarried women.
In some countries, the title Miss is only for girls that are under 18 and after that age, you use the title Ms. to address an unmarried woman. So this honorary word Ms. is used for a woman regardless of her marital status.
Although the title was originated in the 17th century and it gained popularity in the 20s when women started appearing in business fields.
The word miss was derived from the Mistress in 1600s; you can use this title with the full name of a woman or with the last name or just simply Miss.
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Invention of Ms for Gender Equality Reasons
The main motive to invent the title Ms was to bring the gender equality because men have the freedom to use Mr. and that doesn’t show either they are married or not.
This was a force on women to use Mrs after marriage and use Miss before marriage, so to put them equal to men, the title Ms came to light that also doesn’t show either the woman is married or not just like the men’s title “Mr”. So other than the difference between miss and ms, you also know why the word Ms was originated.
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How to Address Her in an Email without Knowing Her Marital Status?
You obviously know the difference between miss and ms, but if I talk about emailing a woman then what would you prefer using before her name? If you don’t know anything about that woman but there is an important email that you have to send her, so how would you initiate your email and what prefix would you use to address her?
Emailing writing requires several etiquettes as it shows a whole formal and professional world where you are not supposed to make mistakes. If you want to maintain a good professional image then you have to follow these etiquettes.
So you should have a clear knowledge of addressing the recipient properly by name and by her status while sending any formal letters. If you are sending it to a lady then clearing the meaning of words like Miss, Mrs and MS is mandatory.
The style of emailing someone in the business field has been changed in all these years, now you don’t use a prefix like Mrs + surname or for unmarried Miss + surname.
These are just old formats that are no longer valid for mailing; there is a new way to address a woman just to keep you from accidentally insulting her.
Now you use a prefix like Ms + surname, so this does not require knowledge about her marital status and also a fully respected way of emailing.
You can use a prefix such as Mrs + surname if she has already emailed in this format, in this case, it’s ok to reply her back using the same prefix.
If you’re going to write an email or a letter to a person but don’t know about her/him gender then wring like “Dear Sir / Madam” will be alright, out of you are sure that you’re writing to a woman but don’t know the name then “Dear Madam” will be okay.
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Conclusion
So this article was mainly on “what is the difference between Miss and Ms” along with the title Mrs and a brief about men’s titles. I hope you get a clear understanding of the difference between miss and ms and using three titles.
Basically, the title Mistress is a female honor word for the title, Mister. These both titles are used for both genders regardless of their marital status.
The mistress is an old trend that is not in use the days and the words Miss and Mrs. were derived from the word Mistress by breaking into two parts in which Miss is for unmarried woman and Mrs. is for married women.
