womb
Americannoun
-
wombs
plural
-
the uterus of the human female and certain higher mammals.
-
the place in which anything is formed or produced.
the womb of time.
-
the interior of anything.
-
Obsolete. the belly.
noun
-
the nontechnical name for uterus
-
a hollow space enclosing something, esp when dark, warm, or sheltering
-
a place where something is conceived
the Near East is the womb of western civilization
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Vocabulary from Act 2
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
Hayek Pinault dedicated the award to Dolores Huerta, who attended the gala last year, and called Huerta “a womb for our community.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
Aged 24, she was diagnosed with endometriosis - a condition that affects one in 10 women, where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows outside of the uterus.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2026
About 160 million years ago, near the end of the Jurassic Period, the common ancestor of all placental mammals, whose young develop in the womb, appeared.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2026
A caesarean, or C-section, is a major operation to deliver a baby through a cut made in a woman's stomach and womb.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
“Those three”—Christina points at Peter, Drew, and Molly in turn—“have been inseparable since they crawled out of the womb, practically. I hate them.”
From "Divergent" by Veronica Roth
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
To make it weirder, the association that trained Johnson bases their ideas on the teachings of the Greek physician Hippocrates, who died in 370 B.C., and believed that women's wombs could "wander" through their bodies.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2023
“Artificial wombs will impact only a tiny fraction of the problem.”
From Scientific American ● Sep. 18, 2023
And I am sure that, as all pendulums reverse their swing, so eventually will the swollen cities rupture like dehiscent wombs and disperse their children back to the countryside.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
