feminine
adjective
Simple meaning
Of or about the female sex.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fehmuhnuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɛmənən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Associated with women and not with men
Having the qualities stereotypically associated with women: nurturing, not aggressive, sensual; womanly.
Of or pertaining to the female sex; biologically female, not male.
Belonging to females; typically used by females.
of another part of speech
Being inflected in agreement with a feminine noun.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Of or pertaining to the female sex; biologically female, not male.
Used this way, feminine is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use feminine
- “She wore a lovely dress with a feminine floral pattern.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The trait of behaving in ways considered typical for women.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: associated with women and not with men
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.