Ms

Ms

despite the derision that greeted its early uses in the 1950s (at first in America and soon after in Britain), is now established as a useful and practical title applied to a woman irrespective of marital status (Ms J. Smith). It is normally used without a full point. Although it was originally devised out of concern for social equality and promoted especially by the feminist movement, it has proved a blessing to everyone, men and women alike, in avoiding the need to research into or divine the personal circumstances of female addressees. There is, however, a snag: it is awkward to pronounce, mǝz and miz being the normal forms, neither of them satisfactory.