iron lady
noun
Simple meaning
A nickname given to different female leaders, indicating that they are strong-willed and unyielding.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
eyeernlaydeeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈaɪɚnleɪdi
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.
noun
A nickname given to various female leaders, indicating that they are strong-willed and unyielding.
especially
Margaret Thatcher.
The iron maiden at Nuremberg.
A falsely or neo-medieval torture device invented in the 18th century consisting of a chamber lined with spikes which closes upon and impales the victim inside.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A nickname given to various female leaders, indicating that they are strong-willed and unyielding.
Used this way, iron lady is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It criticises, but without shouting.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Critical but measured
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.