masculine

UK/ˈmæskjʊlɪn//ˈmæskjələn/

masculine adjective: of or pertaining to the male gender.

Adjective

masculine (comparative more masculine, superlative most masculine)

Of or pertaining to the male gender.
Of or pertaining to the male sex; biologically male, not female.

Synonyms:

male

Antonyms:

female, womanly
Belonging to males; typically used by males.
- “John”, “Paul”, and “Jake” are masculine names.
Having the qualities stereotypically associated with men: virile, aggressive, not effeminate; manly.
- That lady, after her husband's death, held the reins with a masculine energy.1818, Henry Hallam, View of the state of Europe during the Middle ages
- […] a masculine church.1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)
Synonyms:

manly, virile

Antonyms:

effeminate, emasculated, epicene, unmanly
Being of the masculine class or grammatical gender, and inflected in that manner.
- The noun Student is masculine in German.
Synonyms:

male
Being inflected in agreement with a masculine noun.
- German uses the masculine form of the definite article, der, with Student.
Synonyms:

male
(Mongolic languages) Having the vowel harmony of a back vowel.
Following or ending on a stressed syllable.
- Masculine caesura, masculine catalexis, masculine ending, masculine rhyme.

Noun

masculine (plural masculines)

The masculine gender.
- The masculine functions as the negative term in the opposition, i.e. when the gender is not defined, the masculine is used.2009, Carlos Quiles, Fernando López-Menchero, A Grammar of Modern Indo-European, Second Edition
A word of the masculine gender.
- As to the class to which the masculines of the strong declension belong, we repeat that […]1905, George Theodore Dippold, A German grammar for high schools and colleges
That which is masculine.
- These forces would also seem to reflect the gender distinction that can be made with respect to the divine, the feminine associated with the divine as immanent within the finite and the masculine with the divine transcendence and the infinite.2004, Leonora Leet, The Universal Kabbalah
(obsolete, possibly, rare) A man.
- I think women, at least those who do their own work, would live very simply in that respect, if there were none of the masculines to feed.1868, The Ladies' Repository, A Universalist Monthly Magazine For The Home Circle. Volume XXXIX [39], page 458 (left column)

masculine meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

masculine in Hindi

having male qualities, not feminine or effeminate: पौरुषेय pauruṣey, मर्दाना mardānā
of the male sex; biologically male, not female; manly: पौरुषेय pauruṣey, मर्द mard
belonging to males; appropriated to, or used by, males: पौरुषेय pauruṣey
grammar: being of the masculine class, being inflected in the masculine manner: पुल्लिंग pulliṅg

masculine in Tamil

(grammar) the masculine gender: ஆண்பால் āṇpāl

masculine in Marathi

having male qualities, not feminine or effeminate: पुरुषी puruṣī
of the male sex; biologically male, not female; manly: पुरुषवाचक puruṣvācak
belonging to males; appropriated to, or used by, males: पुरुषी puruṣī
grammar: being of the masculine class, being inflected in the masculine manner: पुल्लिंगी pulliṅgī

masculine in Urdu

having male qualities, not feminine or effeminate: مردانہ mardāna
grammar: being of the masculine class, being inflected in the masculine manner: مُذَکَّر muẕakkar

More languagesFewer languages

masculine in Bengali: পৌরুষেয় pōuruśeẏo
masculine in Telugu: పుల్లింగము pulliṅgamu, పుంలింగము puṁliṅgamu
masculine in Malayalam: ആണത്തമുളള, വീര്യവത്തായ, പൗരുഷമുളള, പുല്ലിംഗമായ
masculine in Kannada: ಪುಲ್ಲಿಂಗದ, ಗಂಡುಗುರ‍್ತ, ಗಂಡು ಜಾತಿಯ, ಪುರುಷ ಜಾತಿಯ
masculine in Punjabi: ਪੁਲਿੰਗ puliṅg
masculine in Gujarati: પુંલિંગ pũliṅg
masculine in Sanskrit: पुंलिङ्ग puṃliṅga
masculine in Pashto: نر nër, نارينه nâriná
masculine in Arabic: ذَكَرِيّ ḏakariyy, مُذَكَّر muḏakkar
masculine in Indonesian: maskulin
masculine in Persian: مردانه mardâne, نر nar
masculine in Vietnamese: giống đực
masculine in Myanmar: ပုလ္လိင် pulling

Examples of masculine in a sentence

Most first declension nouns are feminine, but a few like agricola and nauta are masculine.
Grammatically, Hebrew is a gendered language because every noun is either masculine or feminine.
In Spanish, the generic masculine is used to include both men and women.

All 40 example sentences with masculine

Synonyms of masculine

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

unladylike

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of masculine

Forms of masculine

Adjective
comparative	more masculine
superlative	most masculine
alternative abbreviation	m.
alternative abbreviation	m
Noun
plural	masculines

Origin of masculine

From Middle English masculyne, masculyn, from Old French masculin, from Latin masculīnus, diminutive of masculus (“male, manly”), itself a diminutive of mās (“male”). Displaced native Old English werlīċ (literally “manly”).

Phrases with masculine

Questions about masculine

What does masculine mean?: Masculine means of or pertaining to the male gender.
What is masculine in Hindi?: Masculine in Hindi is पौरुषेय (pauruṣey), मर्दाना (mardānā), मर्द (mard). See Masculine meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is masculine?: Masculine can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce masculine?: Masculine is pronounced /ˈmæskjʊlɪn/ (UK).

Words near masculine in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: masculine (page history and authors); masculine (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); masculine (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); પુંલિંગ (Gujarati) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-masculine.ogg.

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