What does "courtesan" mean?

A female prostitute, especially one with high-status or wealthy clients.

What is a synonym for "courtesan"?

Common synonyms include: doxy, 'ho, abandons, adventuress, alley cat, almah.

//kɔːtɪˈzæn// noun

noun ·Common ·High school level

Noun

1
A female prostitute, especially one with high-status or wealthy clients.
"What wine, what drug, what philtre known of man / Will drown this ancient foe, / Ruthless and ravenous as a courtesan, / Sure as an ant, and slow?"
2
a woman who cohabits with an important man wordnet
3
The mistress of a royal or noble. dated
4
A woman of a royal or noble court. archaic
5
A fairy chess piece that can move to any adjacent square, that, when captured, the capturing piece is also eliminated.
"The courtesan moves like a mann, but whatever piece captures her is also removed from the board (unless it’s a king)."

"What wine, what drug, what philtre known of man / Will drown this ancient foe, / Ruthless and ravenous as a courtesan, / Sure as an ant, and slow?"

Borrowed from Middle French courtisane, from Italian cortigiana, feminine of cortigiano (“courtier”), from corte (“court”), itself from Latin cohors.

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