feminine
Americanadjective
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being or relating to to a woman or girl.
feminine beauty;
feminine dress.
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having qualities traditionally ascribed to women, such as sensitivity or gentleness.
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effeminate; womanish.
Growing up, he had been told he had a feminine walk.
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Grammar. noting or pertaining to that one of the three genders of Latin, Greek, German, etc., or one of the two genders of French, Spanish, Hebrew, etc., having among its members most nouns referring to females, as well as other nouns, as Latin stella “star,” or German Zeit “time.”
noun
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the feminine gender.
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a noun or other element in or marking the feminine gender.
adjective
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suitable to or characteristic of a woman
a feminine fashion
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possessing qualities or characteristics considered typical of or appropriate to a woman
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effeminate; womanish
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grammar
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denoting or belonging to a gender of nouns, occurring in many inflected languages, that includes all kinds of referents as well as some female animate referents
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( as noun )
German Zeit ``time'' and Ehe ``marriage'' are feminines
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Synonym Usage
See female.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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antifemininenessnoun
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femininenessnoun
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hyperfemininenessnoun
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antifeminineadjective
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half-feminineadjective
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hyperfeminineadjective
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overfeminineadjective
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pseudofeminineadjective
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superfeminineadjective
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ultrafeminineadjective
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unfeminineadjective
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antifemininelyadverb
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femininelyadverb
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hyperfemininelyadverb
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overfemininelyadverb
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unfemininelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of feminine
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English femynyn(e), from Anglo-French, Old French: feminine of adjective feminin, from Latin fēminīnus, equivalent to fēmin(a) “woman” ( see fetus) + -īnus -ine 1
Explanation
Feminine is the opposite of masculine. If it has anything to do with girls and women, it's considered feminine. Anything feminine is associated with females. In American culture, that includes wearing pink, playing with dolls, sporting high heels, and getting weepy during sad movies. Many women find the traditional feminine roles to be sexist and limiting, while many men pick on each other for acting in a stereotypical feminine manner. But ideas about what is feminine are always changing: pants used to only be a masculine thing to wear, for example.
Vocabulary lists containing feminine
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That opinion describes B.P.J. as a “transgender girl” and refers to both plaintiffs using feminine pronouns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
This idea proposes that the evolution of larger human brains occurred alongside changes that made the human skeleton less robust and more physically feminine compared with those of earlier ancestors.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026
"Sometimes it's nice to take a step back from always being the one making decisions and simply enjoy feeling feminine and being looked after."
From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2026
Rowbottom’s husband, the novelist Jon Lindsey, pointed to her instinct for subjects that literary fiction has historically dismissed — either as unserious, feminine or culturally overexposed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026
At first, my friends grumbled because we had to change a lot of the feminine endings, and so the rhymes all went to pot.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
Although made with contemporary means, Hill’s smeary feminines recall the sharper-edged experiments of Cubists and Futurists.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 25, 2016
"There are no feminines or diminutives of those words, my dear."
From Life at High Tide by Alden, Henry Mills
All the other oldest relatives gradually dropt away, and 'that' came to be applied also to plural antecedents, and to masculines and feminines.
From The Verbalist A Manual Devoted to Brief Discussions of the Right and the Wrong Use of Words and to Some Other Matters of Interest to Those Who Would Speak and Write with Propriety. by Osmun, Thomas Embly
Homer's praises of beauty are reserved for the feminines, especially his favourite Helen.
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 10 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
It really seemed as if she was fitting out an army of feminines.
From Phemie Frost's Experiences by Stephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
