How To Spanish — Ladies - Dama, Mujer & Señora - Tumblr

This is another case of Spanish nuance, where all three of these words refer to “ladies” in some sense of the word, but are used for different things.

*Note: I do want to say that when it comes to things that are reserved for women like a restroom or clothing or shoes etc. they vary in certain regions so zapatos para damas means “women’s shoes” in some places but you might also see zapatos para mujeres. A woman’s bathroom might be written as el servicio de señoras in Spain, but it might be el baño de damas/mujeres in Argentina. And sometimes you’ll just see WC with the symbol for women on a door and that’s how you know.

**Often times people will use will use señora or dama when marking products designed for women because these two are actual titles of respect and mujer means “woman” in more of a general biological sense and not often when referring to actual specific people.

Dama in its literal form means “dame”. And so when speaking about British nobility it is Dama. However, dama may be used in situations like damas y caballeros which is “ladies and gentlemen”, it may refer to a high-class woman like las damas de las cortes “the ladies of the court”, it may refer to a “lady” in the sense of dressing, behaving or feeling like a lady.

It also exists in ceremonies like weddings. The “maid of honor” is known as la dama de honor and the First Lady, the wife of a president, is often known as la primera dama.

Dama is frequently used in board games to refer to a “queen”. In chess, la dama might refer to the piece known as the “queen”. In card games las damas are the queens.

*You may also see Madama used which is typical more for characters from France or Italy although it’s not really in vogue now since la madama refers normally to the “madame” of a brothel.

Mujer refers to “woman” in its literal and sometimes biological sense. It’s typically used to mean “female” since la hembra (female) has a more zoological application and might seem too disrespectful. So, it’s used in cases where you would use “men and women”, los hombres y las mujeres. Mujer might just mean “wife”; English speakers find calling someone “my woman” possessive and rather wrong, but it’s extremely common and not at all negative to say that a woman is la mujer de __ “the wife of ___” because la esposa “wife/spouse” can mean “handcuff” and it’s often used for those more recently married.

Señora used to mean “lady” in the sense of being the wife of a “lord" el señor so la señora started off as a title of nobility much as did la dama. Today it can mean "women” in its literal sense of referring to a woman, but una señora has the connotation of being either an older woman or a married woman. Its diminutive señorita means “miss” and is usually used for women under the age of 18, but in older Spanish the word señora was used to differentiate a married woman from an unmarried woman.

In that sense, when people are addressing others as “Mrs.”, “Ma'am” or “Madam”, la señora is the proper word.

*Because la señora used to mean a title of nobility indicating a female “lord”, it’s often used in older texts to mean “the lady of my heart” or “the lady of the castle”; where it refers to a female owner of something. In its most basic definitions and implications la señora cannot exist without having a man or a piece of land.