heroine
Americannoun
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a woman noted for courageous acts or nobility of character.
Esther and other biblical heroines.
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a woman who, in the opinion of others, has special achievements, abilities, or personal qualities and is regarded as a role model or ideal.
Name two women who have been heroines in your life.
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the principal female character in a story, play, film, etc.
noun
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a woman possessing heroic qualities
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a woman idealized for possessing superior qualities
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the main female character in a novel, play, film, etc
Gender
See hero.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of heroine
1650–60; < Latin hērōīnē < Greek hērōī́nē, feminine of hḗrōs hero; see -ine 2
Explanation
A heroine is a real-life or fictional woman who has lots of courage and fights on the side of good, maybe by rescuing a kitten from a tree, slaying an evil dragon, or helping you with your science fair project. In books and movies, the heroine is the woman who is the main character, and in comic books and fantasy novels, heroines often have superpowers that help them accomplish incredible feats. There are heroines in regular life too, like women’s rights activists who fight against sexism, or a brave mother who rescues her child from a burning building. Heroine sounds the same as the addictive drug heroin, but a heroine will save your life, while heroin will probably end it.
Vocabulary lists containing heroine
Wonder Woman's Superpower Words
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Reading: Literature - Middle School
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Reading: Literature - High School
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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.
See Examples For:
It gives the story some tension, and shows that our heroine isn’t perfect — she’s just doing her best under desert skies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
Think of it more as an inversion, with a bottom-up view of its heroine Emma Harte’s life viewed through parallel timelines.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
Dwayne Johnson reprises his role as demigod Maui, while the titular heroine will be played by newcomer Catherine Laga’aia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
"Like its own heroine, it feels stuck somewhere between the show it thought it wanted to be and the show it has the potential to become," she wrote.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
The blank portion was limited, for the narrow strip was crowded by lines of text and a tiny picture of a hero and heroine embracing under a eucalyptus tree.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Like her heroines, no one tells Knoll what to do.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
Did you channel any classic romance heroes, heroines or stories as you prepped?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2026
She has made images of performers such as Charles Dance and Roger Daltrey and Second World War heroines such as Noor Inayat Khan and Violette Szabo.
From BBC ● Jan. 22, 2026
Orchards, wildernesses and bowers abound in her fiction, where her heroines contemplate curated views or scamper across fields and over stiles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
There were new ones, too, sagas about the heroes and heroines of Korea.
From "A Single Shard" by Linda Sue Park
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.
