Word.ws English Dictionary

handmaiden

handmaiden noun: a cisgender woman who supports transgender rights. Also the alternative form of handmaid.

Noun

handmaiden (plural handmaidens)

  1. (derogatory) A cisgender woman who supports transgender rights.
    • The fact that it is not possible to be seen as a supporter of trans people's human rights, as all feminists are or at least should be, unless we fully capitulate and take the metaphorical – and sometimes literal – boot in the face shows how extreme trans activists, enabled by their handmaiden...2020 July 22, Julie Bindel, “Trans activists risk falling for misogyny”, in The Spectator
    • Solidarity with trans people but not women[,] I note[,] Angela. Especially the boring ones who fought for rights that you now enjoy. Enjoy being a handmaiden.2021 November 10, Rebecca Chandler (@RachelWilde13), Twitter

Also used as

handmaiden is also the alternative form of handmaid.

Forms of handmaiden

pluralhandmaidens

Origin of handmaiden

From Middle English hande mayden, handmaiden, hand mayden, hand-mayden, handmayden, hondemaiden, hond maydyn, hoondmaydyn. By surface analysis, hand + maiden. Sense 2 is an allusion to Canadian writer Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale (1985), in which "handmaids" are women who serve the male commanders in a patriarchal dystopia.

Words formed from handmaiden

Questions about handmaiden

What does handmaiden mean?
Handmaiden means a cisgender woman who supports transgender rights.
What part of speech is handmaiden?
Handmaiden is a noun.
What is the plural of handmaiden?
The plural of handmaiden is handmaidens.

Words near handmaiden in the dictionary

  1. handly
  2. handmade
  3. handmadeness
  4. handmades
  5. handmaid
  6. handmaiden
  7. handmaidenhood
  8. handmaidenly
  9. handmaidens
  10. handmaids
  11. handmake

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: handmaiden (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-handmaiden.wav.

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