feminist
Americanadjective
noun
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of feminist
First recorded in 1850–55 (probably in the current sense, but possibly in the sense “feminine, womanly”); from Latin fēmina “woman” + -ist ( def. )
Explanation
A feminist is someone who supports equal rights for women. If your brother objects strongly to women being paid less than men for doing the same job, he's probably a feminist. If you believe that women should have the same political, social, and economic rights as men, you are a feminist. It has absolutely nothing to do with putting down men or boys in order to elevate the status of women. The word feminist comes from feminism, which originally meant simply "being feminine," or "being a woman," but gained the meaning "advocacy of women's rights" in the late 1800s.
Vocabulary lists containing feminist
When Fake is Real: Young People Rebel Against Instagram, Via Instagram
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Brown Girl Dreaming
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Chapter 29: The Civil Rights Era
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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.
These acts of giving up—or giving in—are beginning to add up to something of a feminist revolution, albeit a very low-key one.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 8, 2026
Vanity Fair dubbed her an “improbable feminist icon.”
From Slate • May 6, 2026
“The personal is political, as the feminist rallying cry has it, and Wohl has taken pains never to lose sight of this insight when imagining the complexities of the lives of others,” McNulty wrote.
From Los Angeles Times • May 4, 2026
Virginia Woolf’s status as a feminist heroine may be somewhat dimmed by the fact that she was a terrific snob.
From Salon • Apr. 19, 2026
But the third daughter, who had become a feminist in the wake of her divorce, said she considered such locker-room entertainments offensive.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
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.
