countess
/ˈkaʊntɪs/noun
countess is spelled C-O-U-N-T-E-S-S: 8 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 3.4 times per million words in written English, the 14,307th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, countess means “The wife of a count or earl” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of countess is countesses.
How many letters and syllables are in countess?
| Letters | 8: C-O-U-N-T-E-S-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.4 times per million words; the 14,307th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is countess?
Countess appears 3.4 times per million words in written English, the 14,307th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce countess?
- /ˈkaʊntɪs/
Countess has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-countess.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of countess
- countesses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does countess mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The wife of a count or earl.
- 2
A woman holding the rank of count or earl in her own right; a female holder of an earldom.
Elizabeth Millicent Leveson-Gower is 24th Countess of Sutherland; her son will be the 25th Earl.
noun
- 1
Alternative letter-case form of countess.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Countess in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense wife of a count or earl:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does countess come from?
From Anglo-Norman cuntesse, Old French contesse, from Latin comitissa; equivalent to count + -ess. Doublet of contessa.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).