manly
/ˈmænli/
manly adjective: having the characteristics of a man.
Adjective
manly (comparative manlier, superlative manliest)
- 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...
- what God or Feend, or ſpirit of the earth,
- 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...
- Serene and manly, harden'd to sustain / The load of life.1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Fifteenth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […]...
Adverb
manly
- In a way befitting a man.
- [Y]ou will not only confer a favor on them but if appointed will add two Officers to our Army who will fight manly to defend their Country.1812 February 4, Reuben Attwater, “From Reuben Attwater”, in Stephen R[ow] Bradley, edited by Dorr Bradley Carpenter, Stephen R. Bradley: Letters of a Revolutionary War Patriot and Vermont Senator...
- “[…] Permit me to bandage it, while, at the same time, I tell you how well Hamet did leading the charge.” “Did he?” Eaton questioned. “He did! and he did it manly! Our rightful heir for once behaved more like a ruler than I ever would have imagined. I believe he won quite a few converts this day.”2001 September 27, Raymond F. Aubé, chapter 31, in Across Troubled Waters, [Bloomington, Ind.]: 1stBooks, →ISBN, page 625
- Synonyms:
- manlily
Proper noun capitalized: Manly
Manly (plural Manlys)
- A surname.
- A suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
manly meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
manly in Hindi
- manly, manlike, masculine, virile
- पुरुषोचित puruṣocit
manly in Tamil
- மாந்த நற்பண்புகள் கொண்ட
manly in Urdu
- manly
- مردانہ mardāna
manly in Bengali
- having the qualities of a man such as courage
- মরদ morod
- having the characteristics of a man
- মরদ morod
More languagesFewer languages
- manly in Malayalam
- പുരുഷത്വമുള്ള, പൗരുഷ, ആണത്തമുള്ള, പൗരുഷമുള്ള
- manly in Kannada
- ಗಂಡಸುತನದ, ಗಂಡುಗಾರಿಕೆಯುಳ್ಳ, ಪೌರುಷದ, ಪರಾಕ್ರಮದ
- manly in Punjabi
- ਮਰਦ marad, ਜਵਾਂਮਰਦ javāmmard, ਮਰਦਾਨਾ mardānā
- manly in Sanskrit
- वृषन् vṛṣan
- manly in Pashto
- نر nër, نارينه nâriná
- manly in Arabic
- رُجُولِيّ rujūliyy
- manly in Indonesian
- jantan
- manly in Persian
- مردانه mardâne
- manly in Thai
- เป็นลูกผู้ชาย
Examples of manly in a sentence
- Without a successful defense of one's city, none of the other virtues would be possible; manly courage seems to be a precondition for anything else worth achieving in life.2001, Thomas W. Smith, Revaluing Ethics: Aristotle's Dialectical Pedagogy, page 86:
- The crowd loves those who fight manly and nobly, but it laughs at those who are pathetic cowards.2014, Jerry Toner, “How to Be a Roman”, in The Day Commodus Killed a Rhino: Understanding the Roman Games (Witness to Ancient History)...
Synonyms of manly
Forms of manly
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | manlier |
| superlative | manliest |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Manlys |
Origin of manly
From Middle English manli, manlich, manly, from Old English *manlīċ (suggested by adverb manlīċe (“in a way befitting a person; nobly, stately”)), from Proto-West Germanic *mannlīk, from Proto-Germanic *mannlīkaz, equivalent to man + -ly (adjectival suffix). Cognate with Old High German manlīh (“manly”) (whence German männlich), Dutch mannelijk, Old Norse mannligr (“human”) (Danish mandlig, Swedish manlig).
From Middle English manli, manlich, manly, from Old English manlīċe, equivalent to man + -ly (adverbial suffix).
English and Irish surname, variant of Manley.
Words formed from manly
Questions about manly
- What does manly mean?
- Manly means having the characteristics of a man.
- What is manly in Hindi?
- Manly in Hindi is पुरुषोचित (puruṣocit). See Manly meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use manly in a sentence?
- Without a successful defense of one's city, none of the other virtues would be possible; manly courage seems to be a precondition for anything else worth achieving in life.
- What part of speech is manly?
- Manly can be an adjective, an adverb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce manly?
- Manly is pronounced /ˈmænli/.
Words near manly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: manly (page history and authors); Manly (page history and authors); पुरुषोचित (Hindi) (page history and authors); manly (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); مردانہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); manly (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); manly (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਜਵਾਂਮਰਦ (Punjabi) (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)-Vealhurl-manly.wav.
Cite this entry: “manly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/manly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.