English

Pronoun

Your Highness

1. (formal) A title of respect used to address a prince or princess.
   • 1818, The Quarterly Review, J. Murray, The Congo Expedition—African Discoveries, page 372:

     Does your Highness know what became of the other ?

   • 1998, Alexandre Dumas, The Man in the Iron Mask (ISBN 0192838423), page 83:

     “Yes, madame, since your Highness has deigned to begin, will you deign to finish—”

2. (informal) A sarcastic term of address to anyone who is (or is acting) pompous or bossy.

Usage notes

• This is the second-person form of address to a prince or princess. Verbs used with this pronoun as the subject are conjugated in the third person. The forms used when referring in the third person are His Highness (to a man) and Her Highness (to a woman).

• If the prince or princess is a member of a royal family, the full form is Your Royal Highness; if a member of an imperial family (i.e., the family of an emperor or empress), the form is Your Imperial Highness.

• The corresponding form for a king, queen, emperor, or empress is Your Majesty. In some modern texts, however, this distinction is lost.

Translations

See also

• Her Highness
• Her Imperial Highness
• Her Royal Highness
• Her Serene Highness
• His Highness
• His Imperial Highness
• His Royal Highness
• His Serene Highness
• Your Majesty
• Your Royal Highness
• Your Royal Majesty