# Help! Can't find the right word!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cant-find-the-right-word/8419>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 10, 2000, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cant-find-the-right-word/8419 "2000-03-10T03:47:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dwtno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@dwtno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwtno)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2000, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cant-find-the-right-word/8419/1 "2000-03-10T03:47:00Z")

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What is the correct term for the Jr., Sr. II, III, IV, etc. at the end of some peoples’ names? Several sources call it a ‘suffix’ but that doesn’t seem right. I know there is a more correct term, but what is it?

Likewise, what is the correct term for the Mr., Mrs. or Miss used before a name? It’s not your ‘title’ as Dr. would be. What’s the right word here?

Help!

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**Author:** ![Rosebud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rosebud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rosebud)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2000, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cant-find-the-right-word/8419/2 "2000-03-10T04:16:00Z")

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In the land of mailing lists, which I am all too familiar with thanks to certain parts of my job, Ms., Mr., Mrs. etc. are called “prefixes”, and “suffix” is indeed the term for Jr., III, IV, etc. There might be less mundane terms for both, but I’ve never heard them.

* * *

Gamera is really neat, he is full of turtle meat, we’ve been eating Gam-er-aaaa…

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**Author:** ![ASPA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b19c9b/32.png) [@ASPA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASPA)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2000, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cant-find-the-right-word/8419/3 "2000-03-10T05:10:00Z")

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Mr., Ms., Dr., are all forms of ADDRESS. Is that the word you were looking for? (Can’t recall term for “suffixes”)

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**Author:** ![ASPA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b19c9b/32.png) [@ASPA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASPA)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2000, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cant-find-the-right-word/8419/4 "2000-03-10T05:13:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Originally posted by ASPA:  
> **Mr., Ms., Dr., are all forms of ADDRESS. Is that the word you were looking for? (Can’t recall term for “suffixes”)**

As in, "Please addresss her, now, as MS., not MRS.,

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**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2000, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cant-find-the-right-word/8419/5 "2000-03-10T06:42:00Z")

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I’m not sure that you want to use it, but you may have been thinking of the term _honorific_.

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Tom~

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**Author:** ![RussellM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed8c4c/32.png) [@RussellM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RussellM)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2000, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cant-find-the-right-word/8419/6 "2000-03-10T10:10:00Z")

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I have usually seen Mr., Mrs., etc., described as titles, and Jr., Sr., etc., described as generational qualifiers.

Russell

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**Author:** ![Boogarrheal\_Catastrophe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Boogarrheal\_Catastrophe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boogarrheal_Catastrophe)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2000, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cant-find-the-right-word/8419/7 "2000-03-10T12:23:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Originally posted by dwtno:  
> … what is the correct term for the Mr., Mrs. or Miss used before a name? It’s not your ‘title’ as Dr. would be. What’s the right word here?

These are called courtesy titles.

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**Author:** ![Wood\_Thrush](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b38774/32.png) [@Wood\_Thrush](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wood_Thrush)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2000, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cant-find-the-right-word/8419/8 "2000-03-11T04:32:00Z")

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I am sorry this doesn’t really relate but I wanted to brag of my ancestry.

I am Robert Price IV

## Thank you

“Whenever a man hears it  
he is young, and Nature  
is in her spring;  
whenever he hears it, it  
is a new world and a free  
country, and the gates of  
heaven are not shut  
against him”  
–Thoreau, on  
the song of the wood thrush