en.wiktionary.org

actress - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From actor +‎ -ess.[1][2][3] Probably formed independently of Middle French actrice.[4]

actress (plural actresses)

  2. A female who performs on the stage or in films. [from 17th c.]

    • 1972, Neil Young, “A Man Needs a Maid”, in Harvest:

      A while ago somewhere I don't know when / I was watchin' a movie with a friend / I fell in love with the actress / She was playin' a part that I could understand

    • 2010, Peter Corris, Torn Apart, Allen and Unwin, page 88:

      "I'm an actress -- actor, as we have to say these days."

    • 2011 January 27, “Not going quietly”, in The Economist:

      Court documents appear to show that Ian Edmondson, a senior News of the World journalist, had authorised Mr Mulcaire to hack phones belonging to Sienna Miller, an actress.

  3. (now rare) A female doer or "actor" (in a general sense). [from 16th c.]

    • 1796, Matthew Lewis, The Monk, Folio Society, published 1985, page 290:

      My mental anguish, and the dreadful scenes in which I had been an actress, advanced the period of my labour.

  • Actor may also be used to refer to a female performer.

female actor — see also actor

  1. ^ “actress”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  2. ^ “actress”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
  3. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “actress”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
  4. ^ John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “actress”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

actress (plural actresses)

  1. actress