female
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
female/ˈfiːmeɪl/
▶adjective
- 1 of or denoting the sex that can bear offspring or produce eggs.
■ relating to or characteristic of women or female animals.
■ (of a plant or flower) having a pistil but no stamens.
- 2 (of a fitting) manufactured hollow so that a corresponding male part can be inserted.
– derivatives
femaleness noun.
femaleness noun.
– origin ME: from OFr. femelle, from L. femella, dimin. of femina ‘a woman’; the change in the ending was due to assoc. with male.
'female' also found in these Oxford entries:
abbess
- actress
- administratrix
- alto
- Amazon
- amplexus
- androgynous
- arbitress
- archegonium
- aunt
- bagworm
- ballerina
- banshee
- barmaid
- barren
- bitch
- blackbird
- blackbuck
- blackcap
- blowsy
- bowerbird
- breast implant
- brimstone
- call girl
- candy-striper
- capacitate
- carpel
- caryatid
- chanteuse
- charlotte
- chigger
- chimera
- circumcision
- claspers
- clitoridectomy
- clitoris
- cochineal
- co-ed
- commère
- contralto
- cover
- cow
- cowgirl
- Crown princess
- cunnilingus
- dairy
- dam
- dame
- dancing girl
- danseur
