she

[shee]

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pronoun, singular nominative she, possessive her or hers, objective her; plural nominative they, possessive their or theirs, objective them.

the female person or animal being discussed or last mentioned; that female.

the woman: She who listens learns.

anything considered, as by personification, to be feminine: spring, with all the memories she conjures up.

noun, plural shes.

a female person or animal.

an object or device considered as female or feminine.

Origin of she

1125–75; Middle English, alteration of Old English sēo, sīo, sīe, feminine of se the¹; replacing Old English hēo, hīo, feminine personal pronoun; see he¹, her

Usage note

See he¹, me, they.

s/he

[shee-er-hee, shee-hee]

pronoun

she or he: used as an orthographic device to avoid he when the sex of the antecedent is unknown or irrelevant.

Compare she/he.

Usage note

See he¹.

she's

[sheez]

contraction of she is.

contraction of she has.

Usage note

See contraction.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for she

girl, wife, daughter, mother, adolescent, teenager, lady, schoolgirl, matron, grandmother, girlfriend, spouse, aunt, niece, gentlewoman, madam, sister, gal, damsel, mademoiselle

British Dictionary definitions for she

she

pronoun (subjective)

refers to a female person or animalshe is a doctor; she's a fine mare

refers to things personified as feminine, such as cars, ships, and nations

Australian and NZ an informal word for it 1 (def. 3) she's apples; she'll be right

noun

a female person or animal
(in combination)she-cat

Word Origin for she

Old English sīe, accusative of sēo, feminine demonstrative pronoun

xref

See me 1

she's

contraction of

she is or she has

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for she

pron.

mid-12c., probably evolving from Old English seo, sio (accusative sie), fem. of demonstrative pronoun se "the," from PIE root *so- "this, that" (see the). The Old English word for "she" was heo, hio, however by 13c. the pronunciation of this had converged by phonetic evolution with he "he," which apparently led to the fem. demonstrative pronoun being used in place of the pronoun (cf. similar development in Dutch zij, German sie, Greek he, etc.). The original h- survives in her. A relic of the Old English pronoun is in Manchester-area dialectal oo "she." As a noun meaning "a female," she is attested from 1530s.

s/he

pron.

artificial genderless pronoun, attested from 1977; from he + she.