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Description: We examined whether women react negatively to terms of endearment (ToEs; e.g., “honey,” “dear”) and whether ToEs reflect sexism. Study 1 participants reported more negative reactions to ToEs as their endorsement of benevolent sexism decreased, and non-college women reacted more negatively than men and college-aged women. In Study 2, women who scored relatively low in benevolent sexism felt less positive, warm, and competent when an interviewer did versus did not use ToEs, whereas women higher in benevolent sexism were unaffected by the use of ToEs. In Study 3, participants inferred that a male vignette character more strongly endorsed sexist and hierarchy-enforcing ideologies if he used ToEs than if he did not. Study 4 found that the more participants self-reported using ToEs, the more they endorsed a variety of sexist and hierarchy-enforcing ideologies. Altogether, this research demonstrates the deleterious effects of seemingly harmless language and extends knowledge about sexism and language.