Mistress vs. Girlfriend — What's the Difference?

A woman who has a continuing sexual relationship with a man who is married to someone else.

A girlfriend is a female friend or acquaintance, often a regular female companion with whom one is platonic, romantically or sexually involved. This is normally a short-term committed relationship, where other titles (e.g., wife or partner) are more commonly used for long-term relationships.

A woman in a position of authority, control, or ownership, as the head of a household

A person's regular female companion with whom they have a romantic or sexual relationship

A woman who owns or keeps an animal

A female companion or friend with whom one has a sexual or romantic relationship.

A woman who owns a slave.

A female friend.

A woman with ultimate control over something

A female partner in an unmarried romantic relationship.

A nation or country that has supremacy over others

A female friend.

Something personified as female that directs or reigns

(LGBT) A fellow gay man, especially a friend as opposed to a sexual partner.

A woman who has mastered a skill or branch of learning

A term of address for a female friend or among gay men.

Mistress Used formerly as a courtesy title when speaking to or of a woman.

Any female friend; as, Mary and her girlfriend organized the party.

Chiefly British A woman schoolteacher.

A girl or young woman with whom a man is romantically involved; as, his girlfriend kicked him out.

A woman, specifically one with great control, authority or ownership

Any female friend;

A female teacher

A girl or young woman with whom a man is romantically involved;

The other woman in an extramarital relationship, generally including sexual relations

A dominatrix

A woman well skilled in anything, or having the mastery over it

A woman regarded with love and devotion; a sweetheart

(Scotland) A married woman; a wife

(obsolete) The jack in the game of bowls

A female companion to a master a man with control, authority or ownership

Female equivalent of master

Female equivalent of mister

Of a woman: to master; to learn or develop to a high degree of proficiency.

(intransitive) To act or take the role of a mistress.

A woman having power, authority, or ownership; a woman who exercises authority, is chief, etc.; the female head of a family, a school, etc.

A woman well skilled in anything, or having the mastery over it.

A woman regarded with love and devotion; she who has command over one's heart; a beloved object; a sweetheart.

A woman filling the place, but without the rights, of a wife; a woman having an ongoing usually exclusive sexual relationship with a man, who may provide her with financial support in return; a concubine; a loose woman with whom one consorts habitually; as, both his wife and his mistress attended his funeral.

A title of courtesy formerly prefixed to the name of a woman, married or unmarried, but now superseded by the contracted forms, Mrs., for a married, and Miss, for an unmarried, woman.

A married woman; a wife.

The old name of the jack at bowls.

To wait upon a mistress; to be courting.

An adulterous woman; a woman who has an ongoing extramarital sexual relationship with a man

A woman schoolteacher (especially one regarded as strict)

A woman master who directs the work of others