landlady

IPA/ˈlændleɪdi/
KK[lˈændlˌedi]IPA/ˈlændleɪdi/

landlady — noun

  • landladysingular
  • landladiesplural

1. a female property owner who lets out a house, flat, room, or plot to tenants and

1.nounB1
Definition

a female property owner who lets out a house, flat, room, or plot to tenants and collects regular rent payments from them.

Example

Aylin sent her landlady a message about the broken kitchen tap.

possessive: someone's landlady

The landlady raised the monthly rent on the small flat above the bakery.

collocation: landlady + raised the rent

Common collocations
  • former landlady
  • rent from one's landlady
  • landlady raised the rent
  • landlady evicted
Synonyms
  • lessor

    formal/legal term for the party granting a lease; gender-neutral

  • landlord

    general or male equivalent; widely used for women too in modern usage

  • property owner

    broader; covers owners who don't rent out their property

Antonyms
  • tenant

    the person who pays rent to the landlady

  • lodger

    renter of a single room, usually in the owner's home

Grammar Patterns

landlady of [property]

[person]'s landlady

Usage Note

Subject of common verbs like 'raise', 'collect', 'evict', 'inspect'. Typically appears with a possessive ('my landlady', 'her landlady') because the relationship is personal between renter and owner.

Common Mistakes

I pay rent to my landlady house every month.
I pay rent to my landlady every month.
landlady refers to the person, not the property; no 'house' after it.
The landlady of the bank refused our loan.
The bank manager refused our loan.
landlady only applies to a woman renting out housing or land, not to other businesses.

2. a woman who runs a pub, bar, or guest house, often serving customers and looking

2.nounB2
Definition

a woman who runs a pub, bar, or guest house, often serving customers and looking after the daily business herself.

Example

Tamar greeted every customer by name when she became the landlady of the village pub.

pattern: landlady of [a pub / an inn]

The cheerful landlady poured two pints of ale and slid them across the wooden bar.

collocation: cheerful / friendly landlady

Common collocations
  • landlady of the pub
  • cheerful landlady
  • the new landlady
  • landlady poured a pint
Synonyms
  • innkeeper

    specifically a guest-house or inn manager; gender-neutral

  • publican

    formal term for someone who runs a British pub

  • proprietress

    old-fashioned, very formal female owner

Antonyms
  • customer

    the person buying drinks or staying at the inn

  • guest

    someone the landlady serves at her inn or B&B

Grammar Patterns

landlady of [the pub / the inn]

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 1: here she runs a hospitality business (pub, bar, guest house), not residential property. Often appears in British contexts; American English usually says 'owner' or 'manager' for the same role.

Common Mistakes

The landlady of the hotel chain owns ten branches.
The owner of the hotel chain owns ten branches.
landlady applies to a single small pub, bar, or guest house, not to large hotel groups.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four refer to someone who lets out property, but they differ in scope and register. 'Landlady' specifically names a woman, while 'landlord' is gender-neutral in modern use and is now the default term for both men and women in legal documents and everyday speech. 'Lessor' is the formal legal label for the party granting the lease — you see it in tenancy agreements, not casual conversation. 'Property owner' is the broadest term: every landlady is a property owner, but a property owner who lives in her own house and rents nothing out is not a landlady. For example, when Aylin signed her lease she addressed her letter to 'Ms Khan, my landlady' in conversation, but the contract itself named her as 'the Lessor'.

landlady ↗landlord ↗lessor ↗property owner

Common collocations

Nouns

  • former landlady
  • the new landlady
  • the cheerful landlady

Phrases

  • pay the landlady
  • speak to the landlady
  • the landlady's permission

Prepositions

  • landlady of [property/pub]
  • rent from [one's] landlady
  • complaint to the landlady

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

A straightforward compound of 'land' (Old English 'land', meaning ground or territory) and 'lady' (Old English 'hlǣfdige', literally 'loaf-kneader', later the female head of a household). It appeared in English in the late 1500s as the feminine counterpart of 'landlord', first describing a woman who owned land that others worked or lived on, and later widening to cover any female owner of rental property — including, by the 1700s, the woman in charge of an inn or alehouse.