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:
In her studio, surrounded by shelves of porcelain figures she recovered from Altadena and refired, she fashions whimsical sculptures imitating feminine figures and feline forms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 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
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
He can’t decide whether she is naive or sophisticated, an earthbound Midwestern girl or the incarnation of the eternal feminine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
Sometimes, Annabelle did it, too, because you were supposed to be thin and delicate and feminine, even if your body was never those things, even if you were hungry.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
Although made with contemporary means, Hill’s smeary feminines recall the sharper-edged experiments of Cubists and Futurists.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 25, 2016
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
All ending in the invariably long vowels, H and O, and in A among the vowels that may be long, are feminines.
From Aristotle on the art of poetry by Bywater, Ingram
Getting clear, at length, of this crowd of feminines, "presto" was the word, and away we bowled along one of the most beautiful roads I have ever seen.
From Kathay: A Cruise in the China Seas by Macaulay, W. Hastings
The tennis court served as a joyful substitute for the drab dreariness of the new home, and the free and easy companionship of Connie's friends a happy relief from the elderly feminines that invaded it.
From A Romance of Billy-Goat Hill by Rice, Alice Caldwell Hegan
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.
