prima donna

[ pree-muh-don-uh, prim-uh; Italian pree-mah dawn-nah ]
See synonyms for prima donna on Thesaurus.com
noun,plural pri·ma don·nas, Italian pri·me don·ne [pree-me dawn-ne]. /ˈpri mɛ ˈdɔn nɛ/.
  1. a first or principal female singer of an opera company.

  2. a temperamental person; a person who takes adulation and privileged treatment as a right and reacts with petulance to criticism or inconvenience.

Origin of prima donna

1
First recorded in 1760–70; from Italian: literally, “first lady”; see prime, duenna

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use prima donna in a sentence

  • The young girl became, thanks to him, the celebrated prima donna of the Fenice theatre, at Venice in 1820.

    Repertory Of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A -- Z | Anatole Cerfberr and Jules Franois Christophe
  • It was a dismissal, immediate, discourteous, on the grounds that she was quite unequal to fill the position of prima donna.

    Black Diamonds | Mr Jkai

British Dictionary definitions for prima donna

prima donna

/ (ˈpriːmə ˈdɒnə) /


nounplural prima donnas
  1. a female operatic star; diva

  2. informal a temperamental person

Origin of prima donna

1
C19: from Italian: first lady

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for prima donna

prima donna

[ (pree-muh, prim-uh don-uh) ]


A vain and overly sensitive person who is temperamental and difficult to work with: “That Jenkins girl is a good gymnast, but she certainly is a prima donna.” In opera, the prima donna is the principal female soloist. From Italian, meaning “first lady.”

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.