Ms. in the context of "Miss"

A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but is rather used by custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title).

In some contexts, courtesy title is used to mean the more general concept of a title or honorific such as Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss, Madam, Sir for those who not been awarded a knighthood or a baronetcy, as well as Dr. for physicians who have not actually achieved a doctorate.

Mister, usually written in its contracted form Mr. (American English) or Mr (British English), is a commonly used English honorific for men without a higher honorific, or professional title, or any of various designations of office. The title Mr derived from earlier forms of master, as the equivalent female titles Mrs, Miss, and Ms all derived from earlier forms of mistress. Master is sometimes still used as an honorific for boys and young men.

The plural form is Messrs(.), derived from the French title messieurs in the 18th century. Messieurs is the plural of monsieur (originally mon sieur, "my lord"), formed by declining both of its constituent parts separately.

Mistress is an old form of address for a woman. It was used as a title of respect for women of authority, respect, or social status. The title did not necessarily distinguish between married and unmarried women. The titles Mrs., Miss and Ms. are abbreviations derived from Mistress. The word mistress comes from the Anglo-Norman and Middle French maistresse, which itself derives from a combination of maistre, meaning master, and the suffix -esse.

Mastress is an obsolete form.

Pre-nominal letters are a title which is placed before the name of a person as distinct from a post-nominal title which is placed after the name. Examples of pre-nominal titles, for instance professional titles include Doctor, Captain, EUR ING (European Engineer), Ir. (ingenieur), Ts. (professional technologist), Ar. (architect), Sr. (surveyor), Br. (certified builder), Gs. (geologist), Mons. (monsignore), Cllr (Councillor), CA (Indian chartered accountant) and Professor.

These distinctive titles replace the standard honorifics used in polite address, indicating gender and, for women, marital status; the common English forms are Mr., Ms., Mrs. and Miss. These honorifics are not normally considered as titles.