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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feminines
plural
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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:
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
It seems that when it comes to their perception in the workplace, Ms. O’Connell says, women can’t win: They’re criticized both for being too feminine and too masculine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
Toughening up the dress made it feel, to me, like armor: concealing more than it showed, feminine but not obviously sexy.
From Salon ● Jun. 12, 2026
Anyone who's listened to Rodrigo's first two albums, 2021's Sour and 2023's Guts, knows the singer has endured a few calamitous heartbreaks, approaching them with a mix of anguish, confusion and feminine rage.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
Written in powerful, sweeping, feminine handwriting: Love the blog.
From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner
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 Henry Mills Alden
The nouns belonging here are chiefly masculines and feminines.
From Anglo-Saxon Grammar and Exercise Book with Inflections, Syntax, Selections for Reading, and Glossary by C. Alphonso (Charles Alphonso) Smith
You are after results; and if you get them, do not mind the feminines of your household lifting the hands of horror over the unorthodox means.
From The Mountains by Stewart Edward White
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 Thomas Embly Osmun
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.
