womb
Americannoun
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the uterus of the human female and certain higher mammals.
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the place in which anything is formed or produced.
the womb of time.
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the interior of anything.
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Obsolete. the belly.
noun
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the nontechnical name for uterus
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a hollow space enclosing something, esp when dark, warm, or sheltering
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a place where something is conceived
the Near East is the womb of western civilization
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obsolete the belly
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of womb
before 900; Middle English, Old English: belly, womb; cognate with Dutch wam, German Wamme, Gothic wamba belly; cf. wamus
Explanation
A womb is the organ in which female mammals grow and carry a fetus before it's ready to be born. Your first home was a womb, but good luck trying to return there. Womb is a slightly more casual, everyday way to say uterus. Whichever word you use, it's the name of the organ that biologically female mammals have for growing fetuses before birth. Many animals have two wombs, but humans just have one. In Old English, womb meant "uterus," but it also meant "belly, bowels, or heart."
Vocabulary lists containing womb
Unit 1: Telling Details
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"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Vocabulary from Act 2
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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 might be possible to find ways to predict, prevent or improve womb age, they say.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
By the end of “Made in America,” Nakajima is no longer trying to find her way back to her mother’s womb.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026
Cells, similar to those which line the womb, start to grow in other parts of the body - such as on the bowel or in the lungs - and multiply, creating raw and angry sores.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
The standard of care, they explained, would be to quickly empty her womb.
From Salon ● May 27, 2026
The conception of a normal child was merely the transfer of this minihuman—the homunculus—from the father’s sperm into the mother’s womb.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
No details have been made public about the three women who have so far received wombs from deceased donor organs.
From BBC ● Apr. 7, 2025
With this new definition, people who need to “borrow” DNA and wombs from fertility helpers—egg donors, sperm donors, and gestational carriers—have more protection from being discriminated against at fertility clinics and by insurance companies.
From Slate ● Nov. 6, 2023
After the 2017 study generated extensive media coverage, fears spread that artificial wombs could one day replace pregnancy.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 18, 2023
Still, he and other neonatologists acknowledge that development of radical technology such as artificial wombs may be needed to move the needle much further.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 17, 2021
Were they aware of the children growing in their wombs?
From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer
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.
