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
The program will be directed by Merrill Ware Carrington, a retreat leader and Episcopal laywoman.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 15, 2013
A Catholic laywoman, Anne Barrett Doyle, who lives in Boston, suggested they should meet.
From New York Times ● May 21, 2013
It was reasonable to suppose that a laywoman would not succeed where physicians had failed.
From The Sex Side of Life An Explanation for Young People by Mary Dennett
The Bishop agrees but insists that since no other Franciscans are female, Aleys must be sent to the nearby Beguines — laywomen who take no vows, live in community and work to support the church.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 4, 2026
Dhammananda contends that Buddha built the religion as a four-legged stool — monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 9, 2021
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
It was, in fact, very little more than the education possessed by laywomen of the same social rank outside and there is little trace of anything approaching scholarship.
From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Eileen Power
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.
