Word.ws English Dictionary

male

UK/meɪl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

South Asia/meːl/

male adjective: belonging to the sex which typically produces sperm, or to the gender which is typically associated with it. Also the masculine of the masculine grammatical gender.

Adjective (1)

male (not generally comparable, comparative maler or more male, superlative malest or most male)

  1. (not comparable, usually) Belonging to the sex which typically produces sperm, or to the gender which is typically associated with it.
    • male writers
    • the leading male and female singers
  2. (not comparable, usually) Characteristic of this sex/gender. (Compare masculine, manly.)
    • stereotypically male interests
    • an insect with typically male coloration
  3. (not comparable, usually) Tending to lead to or regulate the development of sexual characteristics typical of this sex.
    • the male chromosome
    • like testes, ovaries also produce testosterone and some other male hormones
  4. (not comparable, usually) Having the F factor; able to impart DNA into another bacterium which does not have the F factor (a female).
    • Furthermore, male bacteria with fi + R factors, which inhibit the function of F (fi fertility inhibition) (Watanabe et al., 1964a), cannot form specific cell pairs at high frequencies. On the contrary, the formation of[…]1967, Symposium on Infectious Multiple Drug Resistance: Genetics, Molecular Nature, and Clinical Implications of R Factors, May 25, 1967, page 7
    • Male bacteria having the sex factor, also known as the F or "fertility" factor, are termed P if the sex factor exists extrachromosomally. F+ bacteria can only conjugate with F, the female counterparts, which do not possess the F [factor].(Can we date this quote?), The genetics problem solver, Research & Education Assoc., →ISBN, page 443
  5. (figuratively, not comparable, usually) Of instruments, tools, or connectors: designed to fit into or penetrate a female counterpart, as in a connector, pipe fitting or laboratory glassware.
    • Male adapter connects female pipe threads to polyethylene cold-water pipe; [...] female flare coupling connects male pipe threads to flared copper or plastic;1982, Popular Science, page 119
    Synonyms:
    plug

Noun (1)

male (plural males)

  1. A human member of the masculine sex or gender.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:male.
  2. An animal of the sex that has testes.
  3. A plant of the masculine sex.
  4. A bacterium which has the F factor.
    • During mating, F+ male bacteria transfer the F factor to the recipient females, transforming them into F+ males. Males also retain a copy of their F factor for themselves (left). When Hfr (or high frequency recombination) males mate[…]2001 August 1, Harrison G. Echols, Operators and Promoters: The Story of Molecular Biology and Its Creators, Univ of California Press, →ISBN, page 45
    • In this process, one bacterium designated the male bacterium transfers its DNA into the female bacterium. Bacteria are determined to be male or female by a small piece of DNA, called F-plasmid, or sex factor. Bacteria with this small piece of DNA are labeled as males, and bacteria that do not have...2021 February 26, Gregor Majdic, Soul Mate Biology: Science of attachment and love, Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 10
  5. A male connector, pipe fitting, etc.
    • Work another rubber washer over the threads of the male adapter that is now sticking out of the bucket. […] cut out with an X-acto knife, then thread the female fittings to the males.1981, Modern Photography

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Male

Male

  1. A surname.

Noun (2) capitalized: Male

Male pl (plural only)

  1. (alternative, plural, plural-only) Alternative form of Maale.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Male

Male

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of Maale.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Male

Male

  1. A Madang language of Papua New Guinea.

Adjective (2) capitalized: MALE

MALE (not comparable)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of medium-altitude long-endurance

Also used as

male is also the masculine of the masculine grammatical gender.

male meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

male in Hindi

belonging to the sex which typically produces sperm, or the gender typically associated with it
नर nar
human of masculine sex or gender
नर nar
animal of masculine sex
नर nar

male in Tamil

ஆண்குரு

male in Marathi

having an external plug
मेल mel

male in Urdu

belonging to the sex which typically produces sperm, or the gender typically associated with it
مَرْدَانَہ mardāna
human of masculine sex or gender
مَرْد mard, آدَمی ādamī
animal of masculine sex
نر nar
More languagesFewer languages
male in Odia
ଅଣ୍ଡିରା aṇḍirā, ନର nara, ପୁରୁଷ puruṣa
male in Sanskrit
वृषन् vṛṣan, नर nara
male in Sinhala
පිරිමි pirimi, පුරුෂ puruṣa
male in Assamese
মতা mota
male in Tagalog
lalaki
male in Arabic
ذَكَرِيّ ḏakariyy, ذَكَر ḏakar, ذكر dakar or zakar or ðakar
male in Malay
lelaki, jantan
male in Indonesian
pria, laki-laki, jantan
male in Persian
نر nar, مرد mard
male in Thai
ชาย ผู้ chaai, ผู้ชาย pûu-chaai, ชาย chaai, ตัวผู้ dtuua-pûu
male in Vietnamese
trai, nam, trống, đực
male in Myanmar
ယောက်ျား, အဖို a.hpui, အထီး a.hti:

Examples of male in a sentence

  • a male bird feeding a seed to a female
  • in bee colonies, all drones are male
  • intersex male patients
  • We got the hang of [caring for a baby], Kate and I, with some quiet, surprising guidance from a gentle male nurse whose touching lack of intrusion was so instinctive as to seem part of the pattern.1995, Gill Van Hasselt, Childbirth: Your Choices for Managing Pain, Taylor Pub, →ISBN:
  • A bright light was shone in her eye and then she heard a kind, male voice who she figured must be Dr.2006, Bonnie Roberts, Bruises on the Heart, →ISBN, page 118:
  • In addition, the pattern of the relation between female and male careers remains the same over time.2004, Mino Vianello, Gwen Moore, Women and Men in Political and Business Elites: A Comparative Study, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with male

Synonyms of male

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of male

Forms of male

Adjective
comparativemaler
comparativemore male
superlativemalest
superlativemost male
Noun
pluralmales

Plural of male: males

Origin of male

From Middle English male, borrowed from Old French malle, masle (Modern French mâle), from Latin masculus (“masculine, a male”), diminutive of mās (“male, masculine”). Doublet of macho. Displaced native Old English wǣpned (“male”, literally “weaponed”).

* As a Welsh surname, from the personal name Mael, from Middle Welsh mael (“prince”). * As an English surname of Norman origin, contaminated from many Old French sources, such as mail (“hammer”), maille (“chainmail”), maille (“denier”), or esmal (“enamel”). Compare Mailer. * Also as an English surname, from Middle English male (“bag, pouch”). * Also as an English surname of Norman origin, from the source of male (“male, male adult”). * Also as an English surname, from Middle English mele (“meal, flour”) (compare Millman) or from Old Norse melr (“sandhill”). Compare Meil. * As a Slovene surname, from the adjective mal (“small, little”), from Proto-Slavic *malъ. Compare Mal, Mahle. * As a Norwegian surname, from a farm in Romsdal derived from Old Norse mǫl (“layer of pebbles”). Also Americanized from Mæle, Mæhle, itself related to the Norse word melr. Compare Mele.

Abbreviation

Words formed from male

Phrases with male

8 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about male

What does male mean?
Male means belonging to the sex which typically produces sperm, or to the gender which is typically associated with it.
What is male in Hindi?
Male in Hindi is नर (nar). See Male meaning in Hindi.
How do you use male in a sentence?
a male bird feeding a seed to a female
What part of speech is male?
Male can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce male?
Male is pronounced /meɪl/ (UK).

Words near male in the dictionary

  1. Maldonados
  2. Maldonaldo
  3. maldonite
  4. maldoxone
  5. malds
  6. male
  7. male alpha
  8. male alphas
  9. male answer syndrome
  10. male as norm
  11. male bot

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: male (page history and authors); Male (page history and authors); MALE (page history and authors); male (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-male.wav.

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