variants
or schoolma'am
as in teacher
US, old-fashioned
a woman who teaches in a school in a small town or in the country
In the movie, she plays a doting schoolmarm in colonial New England.
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Recent Examples of schoolmarm
This, to Newsom, is being strong; the right are the fainthearted schoolmarms now.
—
Helen Lewis, The Atlantic, 6 Jan. 2026
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board took note of the hard-right’s distress, let down its tightly wound schoolmarm bun and snickered right out loud.
—Pat Beall, The Orlando Sentinel, 13 July 2025
The search for a missing schoolmarm is the focus of an escape room experience at the Lanesfield School, a historic one-room schoolhouse in Edgerton.
—Beth Lipoff, Kansas City Star, 12 Mar. 2025
University deans, schoolmarms and human resources managers penned dress codes outright forbidding the garment or relegating it to certain areas.
—The Conversation, Fortune, 30 Sep. 2023
Visitors can relive a school experience from the early 20th century, complete with a schoolmarm and an outhouse.
—Jshortavon, cleveland, 23 July 2023
Then there’s Jeffrey Wright’s gung-ho military man, Matt Dillon’s bubbleheaded grease monkey, Steve Carell’s apologetic motel owner, Maya Hawke’s friendly schoolmarm, and Rupert Friend’s cowboy loverboy.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 24 May 2023
In the music video, Gavin plays the titular cheerleader who is smitten with a girl in the program; meanwhile, Bridgers plays the pink-haired schoolmarm in charge, while popular gay comedian Caleb Hearon plays a conflicted gay coach.
—Los Angeles Times, 22 July 2022
On hand to enforce the rules is an electronic schoolmarm called Lana, who resembles a Google Home under the influence of HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
—Judy Berman, Time, 16 Apr. 2020
Helen Lewis, The Atlantic, 6 Jan. 2026
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board took note of the hard-right’s distress, let down its tightly wound schoolmarm bun and snickered right out loud.
—Pat Beall, The Orlando Sentinel, 13 July 2025
The search for a missing schoolmarm is the focus of an escape room experience at the Lanesfield School, a historic one-room schoolhouse in Edgerton.
—Beth Lipoff, Kansas City Star, 12 Mar. 2025
University deans, schoolmarms and human resources managers penned dress codes outright forbidding the garment or relegating it to certain areas.
—The Conversation, Fortune, 30 Sep. 2023
Visitors can relive a school experience from the early 20th century, complete with a schoolmarm and an outhouse.
—Jshortavon, cleveland, 23 July 2023
Then there’s Jeffrey Wright’s gung-ho military man, Matt Dillon’s bubbleheaded grease monkey, Steve Carell’s apologetic motel owner, Maya Hawke’s friendly schoolmarm, and Rupert Friend’s cowboy loverboy.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 24 May 2023
In the music video, Gavin plays the titular cheerleader who is smitten with a girl in the program; meanwhile, Bridgers plays the pink-haired schoolmarm in charge, while popular gay comedian Caleb Hearon plays a conflicted gay coach.
—Los Angeles Times, 22 July 2022
On hand to enforce the rules is an electronic schoolmarm called Lana, who resembles a Google Home under the influence of HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
—Judy Berman, Time, 16 Apr. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for schoolmarm
Noun
-
Even in the United States, his student turned assistant Henry LeTang became the tap teacher to hundreds, from starlets needing tailoring to the great Gregory Hines.—
Brian Seibert,
New Yorker,
13 May 2026
-
The bill, which was supported by nurses, teachers, construction workers and service employees in Connecticut, is one of the biggest victories for organized labor in the state in recent years.—
Andrew Brown,
Hartford Courant,
12 May 2026
Noun
-
But the specific French dispensation—the idea that a man’s erotic life exists outside the moral world of his other obligations, that the wife and the mistress are a civilized arrangement, that desire is sovereign—this mythology did not make the crossing with me, or did not survive it intact.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
6 May 2026
-
It was inspired by a real-life account of a French diplomat who has a Chinese mistress for 20 years, seemingly unaware that his paramour is actually a man, and a Communist spy.—
Marla Jo Fisher,
Daily News,
4 May 2026
Noun
-
This week, Princeton faculty voted to require instructor proctoring of all in-class exams beginning on July 1.—
Nate Anderson,
ArsTechnica,
13 May 2026
-
Timothy James Shay, 51, was sentenced to 18 to 54 years in state prison for using his position as a private piano instructor to abuse young male students from the mid-1990s through his arrest in 2025.—
Frederick Sutton Sinclair,
CBS News,
13 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Schoolmarm.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/schoolmarm. Accessed 15 May. 2026.
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