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“Feminine” nouns ending with –ess

When I studied at school (many years ago), they told us that in English (unlike other languages, like my native Hebrew), usually there’s no differentiation between male and female occupations/jobs/professions.

This, of course, is obvious when the occupation/profession ends with:

 “-ian”: physician, obstetrician, mathematician,…

or with: “-ist”: physicist, gynecologist, pharmacist….

But what about the “-er” suffix?

For example: teacher, dancer, baker, driver, writer, plumber, roofer, labourer, employer…?

It should be noted that in many cases you can still use the “male” noun, which refers both to male and female. When you say “baker” you can mean either a male baker or a female baker.

However, I’ve found almost 50(!) words in English specific to female occupations/titles where the male form [either with “-er” or without] is supplemented with the “-ess” female suffix.

So,

A female baker is a “bakeress”, a female “author” is an “authoress”, a female soldier is a “soldieress” etc.

The following is a list of all [known to me…] feminine occupations/titles  ending with “-ess” which are their masculine counterpart.

The description is not always full (i.e. covering all the meanings) in order to make the table shorter and more legible.

You are, of course, welcome to enhance this list.

Thank you

BTW, “mattress” is NOT the female counterpart to “matter”...

Occupation/Title	Description
actress	A female player on the stage
adulteress	A woman that commits adultery
adventuress	A female adventurer; a woman on the look-out for a position
assassinatress	A female assassin
authoress	A female author; a female literary composer
bakeress	A female baker
baroness	The wife of a baron; A lady holding a baronial title ‘in her own right.’
clerkess	A female clerk
countess	The feminine of a count; The wife or widow of a count
courtieress	A female courtier
deaness	A woman who is head of a female chapter; The wife of a dean
doctoress/doctress	A female doctor; A female teacher
duchess	The wife or widow of a duke
empress	The consort of an emperor
esquiress	A female esquire
goddess	A female deity; A female spectator in a theatre-gallery
governess	A woman who governs; A female teacher; an instructress
guardianess	A female guardian or tutor
head-mistress	The principal mistress of a school, having assistant mistresses under her
heiress	A female heir
hostess	A woman that lodges and entertains guests
instructress	A female instructor
keeperess	A female keeper or custodian; A woman who keeps a man
leaderess	A female leader
manageress	A woman manager, e.g. of a theatre or hotel
masoness	A female freemason
mayoress	The wife of a mayor;  A woman holding the office of mayor. U.S.
mistress	A woman who rules, or has control
murderess	A woman that commits murder
patroness	A female patron
peeress	The wife of a peer
playeress	An actress
poetess	A female poet; a woman who composes poetry
popess	A supposed female pope
priestess	A female priest; A priest’s wife
princess	A female sovereign or ruler; the wife of a prince
seamstress	A woman who seams or sews
seductress	A female seducer
soldieress	A female soldier
songstress	A female singer; a poetess
sorceress	A female sorcerer; a witch
stewardess	A female who performs the duties of a steward
temptress	A female tempter
translatress	A female translator
waitress	A woman who waits upon the guests at a hotel, restaurant, etc.