noun
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a woman who is not a member of the clergy
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a woman who does not have specialized or professional knowledge of a subject
a guide for the laywoman
Usage
What does laywoman mean? Laywoman is used in a religious context to refer to a person who is a regular member of a religious congregation and not a member of the clergy—that is, a laywoman is someone who is not a religious official like a priest. The term clergy collectively refers to people who have been ordained or otherwise serve as religious leaders or officials, such as priests, rabbis, and nuns. People who are not part of the clergy can be called laypeople or collectively referred to as the laity. The word layman is more commonly used. It specifically refers to a man but is often used regardless of gender. The gender-neutral term layperson is also commonly used. Laywoman is also sometimes used outside of a religious context to refer to a woman who is not a member of a particular profession or who is not an expert in or knowledgeable about a particular field. The word layman is also used in this way in the phrase layman’s terms, which means plain language that the average person can understand, as opposed to technical jargon that can only be understood by experts in the topic or those who are already familiar with it. Example: I’m a laywoman, not an expert, but I’ve researched the topic thoroughly enough to have a grasp of it.
Gender
See -woman.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of laywoman
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:
María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, known as Mama Antula, was an 18th-Century laywoman who is considered by some to be Argentina's first feminist.
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2024
Mama Antula was an 18th century laywoman who ministered to the poor and helped keep Jesuit spirituality alive in Argentina after the religious order — to which the pope belongs — was suppressed.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 11, 2024
She was elected alongside incoming president Julia Ayala Harris, a Latina laywoman from the Diocese of Oklahoma.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 15, 2022
A Catholic laywoman, Anne Barrett Doyle, who lives in Boston, suggested they should meet.
From New York Times ● May 21, 2013
But when you speak of man acting as a unit he is a layman, but you never say a laywoman.
From Samantha among the Brethren — Volume 7 by Holley, Marietta
He has also named women — laywomen and religious sisters — as consultors to Vatican offices dominated by male clergy, including the one that chooses bishops.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 6, 2022
When Gregory arrived, he made Pehle a full-time administrator, as well as, eventually, 12 other nuns and laywomen who were given the title “parish life coordinators.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 14, 2019
So, theologically speaking, laypeople, including laywomen, can be cardinals.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 28, 2018
In November 1836, Dellile and her friends Juliette Gaudin and Josephine Charles created the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for laywomen of color.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 25, 2017
If there had been, there would have been a term for laywomen and for clergywomen.
From Samantha among the Brethren — Volume 7 by Holley, Marietta
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.
