Your Highness

English

Pronoun

Your Highness (plural Your Highnesses)

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

     Does your Highness know what became of the other ?

   • 1998, Alexandre Dumas, The Man in the Iron Mask, →ISBN, page 83:

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

   • 2021, Aminé (lyrics and music), “Charmander”, in TWOPOINTFIVE‎^[1]:

     When I'm up in London, everybody say Your Highness / Not because I'm royal, but because I be the highest

2. (informal, sarcastic) 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 (of a man) and Her Highness (of 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

a title of respect used to address a prince or princess

• Arabic: سُمُوُّكَ (sumuwwuka) (to masc sg), سُمُوُّكِ (sumuwwuki) (to fem sg)
• Catalan: Sa Altesa f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 殿下 (zh) (diànxià)

• Danish: Deres Højhed
• Estonian: Teie Kõrgeausus
• Finnish: teidän korkeutenne
• French: Votre Altesse (fr) f
• German: Ihre Hoheit f
• Greek: Υψηλότητα (el) (Ypsilótita)
• Italian: Sua Altezza
• Japanese: 殿下 (ja) (でんか, denka), 上様 (uesama)
• Korean: 전하(殿下) (ko) (jeonha)
• Macedonian: Ва́ше Висо́чество n (Váše Visóčestvo)
• Maori: Tōu Whakaritenga
• Portuguese: Vossa Alteza (pt) f
• Russian: Ва́ше Высо́чество n (Váše Vysóčestvo), Ва́ше Вели́чество n (Váše Velíčestvo)
• Slovak: vaša výsosť f
• Spanish: Su Alteza f
• Swedish: Ers Höghet c
• Vietnamese: điện hạ (vi)
• Welsh: Eich Uchelder

See also

Third person - female (Her)	Third person - male (His)	Second person (Your)	Third person - plural (Their)
Her Britannic Majesty	His Britannic Majesty	Your Britannic Majesty	Their Britannic Majesties
Her Excellency	His Excellency	Your Excellency	Their Excellencies
Her Highness	His Highness	Your Highness	Their Highnesses
Her Imperial Highness	His Imperial Highness	Your Imperial Highness	Their Imperial Highnesses
Her Imperial Majesty	His Imperial Majesty	Your Imperial Majesty	Their Imperial Majesties
Her Maj	His Maj	Your Maj
Her Majesty	His Majesty	Your Majesty	Their Majesties
Her Royal Highness	His Royal Highness	Your Royal Highness	Their Royal Highnesses
Her Royal Majesty	His Royal Majesty	Your Royal Majesty	Their Royal Majesties

See also

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