feminize
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
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to make or become feminine
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to cause (a male animal) to develop female characteristics
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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defeminizationnoun
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feminizationnoun
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overfeminizeverb
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defeminizeverb (used with object)
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unfeminizeverb (used with object)
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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feminizesimple
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feminizessimple
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have feminizedperfect
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has feminizedperfect
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am feminizingprogressive
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are feminizingprogressive
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is feminizingprogressive
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have been feminizingperfect progressive
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has been feminizingperfect progressive
Past
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feminizedsimple
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had feminizedperfect
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was feminizingprogressive
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were feminizingprogressive
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had been feminizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of feminize
1645–55; < Latin fēmin ( a ) woman + -ize
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:
The New York Times’ Karen Rosenberg described it as the first project “to humanize and feminize the atrium.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2021
The two discussed Kamala Harris’ historic vice presidential campaign and America’s tendency to feminize candidates for political office.
From Slate ● Sep. 16, 2020
Being a big-boned gal with broad shoulders, I knew a fuller bust line would detract from that and feminize my appearance even more.
From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2018
“To feminize politics, to me, implies to have more coöperative ways of working that actually allow you to combine professional and private life,” Colau said.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 6, 2018
Where it was physical for me was those beginning stages where I could be easily clocked, when I didn’t know how to do certain things to feminize myself.
From Washington Post
“But she chose the old Arabic feminized version of the word that means ‘counselor or advisor.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2023
Designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana feminized the menswear silhouettes this season, with tailoring tricks long deployed for women.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 17, 2023
The response essay, written by Dorothy R. Santos, an expert on voice recognition, explores the cultural baggage behind our obsession with feminized A.I.
From Slate ● Oct. 29, 2022
As with the film’s treatment of Ball, the implication is that she is too good for the feminized media forms she helped create.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 14, 2021
He was a coarse male creature at large in a room highly feminized.
From The Price of Love by Bennett, Arnold
“It normalizes the experience without necessarily feminizing it.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
Instrumental in feminizing the occupation, Beecher argued that pious young women should be the ones to do the moral work of teaching — in no small part because they provided cheap labor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2024
"Determining which specific compounds can change the hatchling sex ratios is important for developing strategies to prevent pollutants from further feminizing sea turtle populations," Dr van de Merwe added.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 13, 2023
Although testosterone is tough to compound, LGBTQ+ advocates claim that the basic ingredients used to create feminizing hormone medications are widely available at most major drug stores.
From Slate ● Sep. 6, 2023
I read about hyperadrenocorticism and feminizing testes and something called cryptorchidism, which applied to me.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
