Word.ws English Dictionary

maiden

UK/ˈmeɪdən/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈmæɪdən/

maiden noun: a girl or an unmarried young woman. Also the alternative form of Maiden.

Noun (1)

maiden (plural maidens)

  1. (literary) A girl or an unmarried young woman.
  2. (archaic) A female virgin.
    • She's unmarried and still a maiden.
    Synonyms:
    bachelorette
  3. (dialectal, obsolete) A man with no experience of sex, especially because of deliberate abstention.
    • As for that ſaid ſire Bors I wille be ſhryuen with a good wylle / Soo ſyr Bors was confeſſyd / and for al wymmen ſir Bors was a vyrgyne / ſauf for one / that was the doughter of kynge Brangorys / and on her he gat a child that hyghte Elayne / and ſauf for her ſyre Bors was a clene mayden[…]1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum Quartum”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book XI (in Middle English), [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC, leaf 289, recto...
  4. A maidservant.
  5. A clothes maiden.
  6. (archaic) An unmarried woman, especially an older woman.
  7. A racehorse without any victory, i.e. one having a "virgin record".
  8. A horse race in which all starters are maidens.
  9. (historical) A Scottish counterpart of the guillotine.
    • It had been customary during the whole civil war, to decapitate state criminals by the instrument called the maiden; but Montrose was condemned to a more ignominious death , by a gibbet thirty feet high1832, Robert Chambers, The History of Scotland
  10. A maiden over.
  11. (obsolete) A machine for washing linen.

Adjective

maiden (not comparable)

  1. Virgin.
    • a surprising old maiden lady1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859, →OCLC
    • It was just the middle of October when I moved in with my maiden sister […]1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House
  2. (human or animal) Without offspring.
  3. Like or befitting a (young, unmarried) maiden.
    • Haue you no modeſty, no maiden ſhame, / No touch of baſhfulneſſe?c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First...
  4. (figuratively) Being a first occurrence or event.
    • 1975 was the year when West Indies won their maiden World Cup title.
    • The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage.
  5. Being an over in which no runs are scored.
    • He bowled a record twelve maiden overs in his spell of 8-33 in 21 overs.
  6. Fresh; innocent; unpolluted; pure; hitherto unused.
    • Come Brother Iohn, full brauely haſt thou fleſht thy Maiden ſword.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • When I am dead, good Wench, / Let me be vs’d with Honor; ſtrew me ouer / With Maiden Flowers, that all the world may know / I was a chaſte Wife, to my Graue: Embalme me, / Then lay me forth (although vnqueen’d) yet like / A Queene, and Daughter to a King enterre me.1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio)...
  7. Never having been captured or violated.
    • Victorie forsook him for ever since he ransacked the maiden town of Magdenburg1631, J. Taylor, (Please provide the book title or journal name)
    • But every citizen considered his own honor as bound up with the honor of the maiden fortress.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
  8. Grown from seed and never pruned.

Noun (2) capitalized: Maiden

Maiden (plural Maidens)

  1. One of the triune goddesses of the Lady in Wicca alongside the Crone and Mother representing a girl or a young woman
    • […] different stages of life as represented by our Lady as Maiden, Mother, and Crone, as well as our Lord as Master, Father, and Sage.2002, A.J. Drew, Wicca for Couples: Making Magick Together, page 90
    • The Lady is often thought of as having three aspects: Maiden, Mother, and Crone.2004, Aurora Greenbough, Cathy Jewell, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Spells and Spellcraft, page 9

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Maiden

the Maiden

  1. The constellation and zodiacal sign Virgo.
    • "'Tis the simplest thing in the world, sir," said Sheridan. "Virgo, the Maiden, follows Leo, the Lion, in society, as well as in the Zodiac."1905 March 4, The Australasian, Melbourne, page 49, column 4
    • In the top left-hand corner was the emblem of the company - a young woman holding up an ear of corn. The stranger had given him the Sign of the Maiden!1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 88

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Maiden

Maiden

  1. A surname.
  2. Iron Maiden, a heavy metal band from England.

Also used as

maiden is also the alternative form of Maiden.

maiden meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Tagalog and Arabic

maiden in Hindi

unmarried young female
युवती yuvtī, लड़की laṛkī, कुँवारी kũvārī
female virgin
कुँआरी kũārī, कुंवारी kumvārī

maiden in Urdu

unmarried young female
کُن٘واری kũvārī, لَڑْکی laṛkī

maiden in Tagalog

unmarried young female
dalaga

maiden in Arabic

unmarried young female
جَارِيَة jāriya, فَتَاة fatāh
female virgin
بِكْر bikr, عَذْرَاء ʕaḏrāʔ
More languagesFewer languages
maiden in Malay
anak dara
maiden in Indonesian
gadis, perawan
maiden in Thai
บริสุทธิ์ bɔɔ-rí-sùt
maiden in Vietnamese
thiếu nữ, gái trinh, trinh nữ

Examples of maiden in a sentence

  • The manufacturer's CEO was confident enough to ride as a passenger on the airship's maiden flight.
  • Alice confidently stepped up on the platform to give her maiden speech as CEO.
  • He was surprised to see so many women workers. What did he expect, comely maidens?

All 40 example sentences with maiden

Synonyms of maiden

Antonyms

Forms of maiden

pluralmaidens
pluralMaidens
alternative formMayden

Plural of maiden: maidens

Origin of maiden

From Middle English mayden, meiden, from Old English mæġden (“girl”), originally a diminutive of mæġeþ (“girl”) via diminutive suffix -en, from Proto-West Germanic *magaþ, from Proto-Germanic *magaþs. Equivalent to maid + -en.

Words formed from maiden

Phrases with maiden

10 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with maiden

Questions about maiden

What does maiden mean?
Maiden means a girl or an unmarried young woman.
What is maiden in Hindi?
Maiden in Hindi is युवती (yuvtī), लड़की (laṛkī), कुँवारी (kũvārī). See Maiden meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is maiden?
Maiden can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce maiden?
Maiden is pronounced /ˈmeɪdən/ (UK).
What is the plural of maiden?
The plural of maiden is maidens.

Words near maiden in the dictionary

  1. maidauns
  2. maidchild
  3. maidchildren
  4. maide
  5. maided
  6. maiden
  7. maiden assize
  8. maiden assizes
  9. Maiden Bradley
  10. Maiden Bradley with Yarnfield
  11. maiden flight

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: maiden (page history and authors); Maiden (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-maiden.ogg, en-au-maiden.ogg.

Cite this entry: “maiden.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/maiden. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.