Word.ws English Dictionary

manliest

manliest is the superlative form of manly.

Meaning of manly

Adjective

manly (comparative manlier, superlative manliest)

  1. Having the characteristics of a man.
    • what God or Feend, or ſpirit of the earth,
      Or Monſter turned to a manly ſhape,
      Or of what mould or mettel he be made,
      What ſtar or ſtate ſoeuer gouern him,
      Let vs put on our meet incountering mindes, […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
  2. Having qualities viewed as befitting a man; masculine, manful, courageous, resolute, noble.
    • Let's briefly put on manly readiness.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

See all 5 meanings of manly

Questions about manliest

What is manliest the superlative form of?
Manliest is the superlative form of manly.

Words near manliest in the dictionary

  1. manlets
  2. Manley
  3. Manleys
  4. Manlibunan
  5. manlier
  6. manliest
  7. manlift
  8. manlifts
  9. manlihead
  10. manlihood
  11. manlike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: manliest (page history and authors); manly (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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Cite this entry: “manliest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/manliest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.