feminine
Syllables: fem·i·nine/ˈfɛmɪnɪn/
feminine adjective: of or pertaining to the female gender.
Adjective
feminine (comparative more feminine, superlative most feminine)
- Of or pertaining to the female gender.
- Of or pertaining to the female sex; biologically female, not male.
- Belonging to females; typically used by females.
- Mary, Elizabeth, and Edith are feminine names.
- Having the qualities stereotypically associated with women: nurturing, not aggressive, sensual; womanly.
- Her heavenly form Angelic, but more soft and feminine.1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- Her letters are remarkably deficient in feminine ease and grace.1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC
- Being of the feminine class or grammatical gender, and inflected in that manner.
- Synonyms:
- female
- Being inflected in agreement with a feminine noun.
- Women's names were formed in the same way as men's, but with feminine terminations […]1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xiii
- Synonyms:
- female
- Having the vowel harmony of a front vowel.
- Following or ending on an unstressed syllable.
- Feminine caesura, feminine catalexis, feminine ending, feminine rhyme.
Noun
feminine (plural feminines)
- That which is feminine.
- A woman.
- They guide the feminines toward the Pallace.1589, Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC
- The feminine gender.
- A word of the feminine gender.
- These changes being understood, it is easy to see how inaccurate it is to talk of she being the feminine, and they being the plural, of he. The different words belong to different systems, and are no more the masculines and feminines of one another, than (to use a well-known illustration) puss is...1860, Robert Gordon Latham FRS, An Elementary English Grammar: For the Use of Schools, →OCLC, page 82
feminine meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
feminine in Hindi
- of the feminine grammatical gender distinction
- स्त्रीलिंग strīliṅg
- of the female sex
- स्त्रैण straiṇ
- belonging to females
- स्त्रैण straiṇ
- having the qualities associated with women
- स्त्रैण straiṇ
feminine in Tamil
- (grammar)
- பெண்பால் peṇpāl
feminine in Marathi
- of the feminine grammatical gender distinction
- स्त्रीलिंगी strīliṅgī
- of the female sex
- स्त्रैण straiṇ
- having the qualities associated with women
- बायकी bāykī
- (grammar)
- स्त्रीलिंग strīliṅga
feminine in Urdu
- of the feminine grammatical gender distinction
- مُؤَنَّث muannas
More languagesFewer languages
- feminine in Bengali
- স্ত্রীলিঙ্গ striliṅgo
- feminine in Telugu
- స్త్రీలింగము strīliṅgamu
- feminine in Malayalam
- പെണ്ണൻ peṇṇaṉ
- feminine in Kannada
- ಸ್ತ್ರೀ ಜಾತಿಯ, ಹೆಣ್ಣುಗುರ್ತ, ಸ್ತ್ರೀ ಸಹಜವಾದ, ಸ್ತ್ರೀ ಯೋಗ್ಯವಾದ
- feminine in Punjabi
- زَنانہ zanānh, ਇਸਤਰੀਲਿੰਗ isatrīliṅg, ਜ਼ਨਾਨਾ zanānā
- feminine in Gujarati
- સ્ત્રીલિંગ strīliṅg
- feminine in Odia
- ସ୍ତ୍ରୈଣ straiṇa
- feminine in Sanskrit
- स्त्रीलिङ्ग strīliṅga
- feminine in Pashto
- ښځينه ẍëźina
- feminine in Arabic
- مُؤَنَّث muʔannaṯ, نِسَائِيّ nisāʔiyy
- feminine in Indonesian
- feminin
- feminine in Persian
- زنانه zanâna, مؤنث mo'annas
- feminine in Vietnamese
- giống cái, nữ giới, nữ tính
- feminine in Myanmar
- ဣတ္ထိလိင် ithti.ling
Examples of feminine in a sentence
- Ninias being esteemed no man of warre at all, but altogether feminine, and subject to ease and delicacy.1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC...
- These changes being understood, it is easy to see how inaccurate it is to talk of she being the feminine, and they being the plural, of he.1860, Robert Gordon Latham FRS, An Elementary English Grammar: For the Use of Schools, →OCLC, page 82:
Synonyms of feminine
13 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of feminine
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more feminine |
| superlative | most feminine |
| alternative abbreviation | f. |
| alternative abbreviation | f |
| alternative misspelling | femenine |
| alternative hypercorrect (obsolete) | fœminine |
| Noun | |
| plural | feminines |
Origin of feminine
From Middle English feminine, femynyne, femynyn, from Old French feminin, feminine, from Latin fēminīnus, from fēmina (“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-m̥h₁n-eh₂ (“(the one) nursing, breastfeeding”). Related to fetus, feminism, filial, fellatio.
Words formed from feminine
- antifeminine
- cisfeminine
- feminine caesura
- feminine ending
- feminine hygiene
- femininely
- feminineness
- feminine of center
- feminine product
- feminine rhyme
- femininism
- femininity
- femininization
- femininize
- feminize
- feminoid
- hyperfeminine
- infeminine
- masculofeminine
- nonfeminine
- overfeminine
- pseudofeminine
- superfeminine
- suprafeminine
- transfeminine
- ultrafeminine
- unfeminine
Phrases with feminine
Questions about feminine
- What does feminine mean?
- Feminine means of or pertaining to the female gender.
- What is feminine in Hindi?
- Feminine in Hindi is स्त्रीलिंग (strīliṅg), स्त्रैण (straiṇ). See Feminine meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use feminine in a sentence?
- Ninias being esteemed no man of warre at all, but altogether feminine, and subject to ease and delicacy.
- What part of speech is feminine?
- Feminine can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce feminine?
- Feminine is pronounced /ˈfɛmɪnɪn/.
Words near feminine in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: feminine (page history and authors); স্ত্রীলিঙ্গ (Bengali) (page history and authors); പെണ്ണൻ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); feminine (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); સ્ત્રીલિંગ (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-feminine.ogg.
Cite this entry: “feminine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/feminine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.