feminine

[fem-uh-nin]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR feminine ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

pertaining to a woman or girl: feminine beauty; feminine dress.

having qualities traditionally ascribed to women, as sensitivity or gentleness.

effeminate; womanish: a man with a feminine walk.

belonging to the female sex; female: feminine staff members.

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 Grammar.

the feminine gender.

a noun or other element in or marking that gender.

Origin of feminine

1350–1400; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French: feminine of feminin < L of fēminīnus, equivalent to fēmin(a) woman (see fetus) + -īnus -ine¹

Related formsfem·i·nine·ly, adverbfem·i·nine·ness, nounan·ti·fem·i·nine, adjectivean·ti·fem·i·nine·ly, adverban·ti·fem·i·nine·ness, nounhalf-fem·i·nine, adjectivehy·per·fem·i·nine, adjectivehy·per·fem·i·nine·ly, adverbhy·per·fem·i·nine·ness, nouno·ver·fem·i·nine, adjectiveo·ver·fem·i·nine·ly, adverbpseu·do·fem·i·nine, adjectivesu·per·fem·i·nine, adjectiveul·tra·fem·i·nine, adjectiveun·fem·i·nine, adjectiveun·fem·i·nine·ly, adverb

Can be confusedfemale feminine (see synonym study at female)effeminate effete feminine womanish womanly (see synonym study at womanly)

Synonyms for feminine

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2. See female.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for feminine

ladylike, soft, tender, womanly, female, dainty, effeminate, womanish

Examples from the Web for feminine

Contemporary Examples of feminine

All other issues—racial, feminine, even environmental—need to fit around this central objective.
Time to Bring Back the Truman Democrats
Joel Kotkin
December 21, 2014
These crimes of fashion proved the men were feminine and thus gay and therefore worthy of incarceration.
The Straight Hero of Cameroon’s Gays
Jay Michaelson
December 10, 2014
In Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen defends the novel against critics who dismiss it as frivolous and feminine.
The Birth of the Novel
Nick Romeo
November 27, 2014
“I had this feminine, classical image [of myself] that would have totally been destroyed,” she said.
Whip It: Secrets of a Dominatrix
Justin Jones
November 25, 2014
Betty Friedan put the feelings of our mothers to words, publishing The Feminine Mystique.
Whither the Women’s Movement?
Judith Barnett
July 19, 2014

Historical Examples of feminine

Simple Alleyne opened his eyes at this little spurt of feminine bitterness.
The White Company
Arthur Conan Doyle
Did she have a heart, then, or was it a feminine trait to turn pale in every emergency?
Chip, of the Flying U
B. M. Bower
But dancing was the only feminine accomplishment with which she had any acquaintance.
Biographical Stories
Nathaniel Hawthorne
"'Tis nothing," she answered, refusing his support with feminine reserve.
The Last of the Mohicans
James Fenimore Cooper
His own nature partook of the feminine, and he shared its intuitions and its fears.
Tiverton Tales
Alice Brown

British Dictionary definitions for feminine

feminine

adjective

suitable to or characteristic of a womana feminine fashion

possessing qualities or characteristics considered typical of or appropriate to a woman

effeminate; womanish

grammar

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
(as noun)German Zeit ``time'' and Ehe ``marriage'' are feminines

Derived Formsfemininely, adverbfeminineness, noun

Word Origin for feminine

C14: from Latin fēminīnus, from fēmina woman

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for feminine

adj.

mid-14c., "of the female sex," from Old French femenin (12c.) "feminine, female; with feminine qualities, effeminate," from Latin femininus "feminine" (in the grammatical sense at first), from femina "woman, female," literally "she who suckles," from root of felare "to suck, suckle" (see fecund). Sense of "woman-like, proper to or characteristic of women" is recorded from mid-15c.

The interplay of meanings now represented in female, feminine, and effeminate, and the attempt to make them clear and separate, has led to many coinages: feminitude (1878); feminile "feminine" (1640s); feminility "womanliness" (1838); femality (17c., "effeminacy;" 1754 "female nature"). Also feminality (1640s, "quality or state of being female"), from rare adjective feminal (late 14c.), from Old French feminal. And femineity "quality or state of being feminine," from Latin femineus "of a woman, pertaining to a woman."