Bishopess

//bɪʃ.əˈpɛs// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A female bishop.

    "Presently there were bishopesses as well as priestesses, splendidly arrayed in chasubles and diadems. These were, from a strictly canonical point of view, the first validly ordained women priests."

  2. 2
    The wife of a bishop.

Example

More examples

"Presently there were bishopesses as well as priestesses, splendidly arrayed in chasubles and diadems. These were, from a strictly canonical point of view, the first validly ordained women priests."

Etymology

From bishop + -ess.

More for "bishopess"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.