womanhood

[ woom-uhn-hood ]

noun

1. the state of being a woman; womanly character or qualities.
2. women collectively:

   American womanhood.

womanhood

/ ˈwʊmənˌhʊd /

noun

1. the state or quality of being a woman or being womanly
2. women collectively

Word History and Origins

Origin of womanhood¹

A Middle English word dating back to 1325–75; woman, -hood

Example Sentences

In My Body, the author outlines her rise in the fashion and film industries as well as her journey to motherhood through essays that coalesce into a frank and intimate portrait of womanhood, power and sexuality.

From Time

In the S2 finale, Dorothy got her first period, marking her transition into womanhood, and The Candlemaker's powers began to manifest in the real world.

From Ars Technica

It’s also ironic that we tend to see step-throughs as somehow less serious than bikes with high top tubes, inasmuch as these were the very bikes that upended Victorian conventions of womanhood in the late 19th century.

From Outside Online

The tradition, called a sunrise ceremony, is a rite of passage for a teenage girl in which she goes through a series of rituals to recognize her transition to womanhood.

From Washington Post

This 1997 Anita Diamant novel fleshes out the minor Biblical character Dinah — the daughter of Jacob and Leah and the sister of Joseph, he of the coat of many colors — to tell a compelling story about ancient womanhood.

From Ozy

The novel is a near perfect portrayal of the emotions of a young girl on the cusp of womanhood.

From The Daily Beast

When the young woman is ready to emerge from her weeks in hiding, she attends a ceremony marking her ascent into true womanhood.

From The Daily Beast

Yet over the course of this season, Sansa has become a pillar of strong womanhood.

From The Daily Beast

Those were the valuable aspects of womanhood at the time: being pretty and even-tempered and sweet.

From The Daily Beast

Many of the poems are diagrams and puzzles that seek to look at love, womanhood, motherhood, and the longing for God in new ways.

From The Daily Beast

This last, which is the work of one now grown into womanhood and no longer a story-teller, is interesting in many ways.

From Project Gutenberg

Each essays to think, appear and speak as nearly according to the orthodox standard of Womanhood as possible.

From Project Gutenberg

She was like no other woman, he said—a woman with all the possible beauty and glory of womanhood stored in her heart.

From Project Gutenberg

He had seen Mildred creep from babyhood into childhood, and bud from girlhood to womanhood.

From Project Gutenberg

There comes a time in the life of every girl when she must change from childhood to womanhood; she can not always remain a child.

From Project Gutenberg