Dame vs Countess - What's the difference?

As nouns the difference between dame and countess

is that dame is the {{l/en|equivalent}} title to {{l/en|Sir}} for a female {{l/en|knight}} while countess is the wife of a count or earl.

(en noun)

(British) The .

Dame Edith Sitwell

(dated, informal, slightly, derogatory, US) A woman.

* 1949 , (Oscar Hammerstein II), "(There is Nothing Like a Dame)",

There ain't nothin' like a dame'! / Nothin' in the world! / There is nothin' you can name / That is anythin' like a ' dame !

A traditional character in British pantomime, a melodramatic female often played by a man in drag.

(archaic) , woman.

* See also

(es)

The wife of a count or earl.

The title used by a female who holds an earldom in her own right.

Elizabeth Millicent Leveson-Gower is 24th Countess of Sutherland; her son will be the 25th Earl.