women

Multiple Entries:
  women    woman  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
women/ˈwɪmɪn/

plural form of woman.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
woman/ˈwʊmən/

▶noun (pl. women)

• 1 an adult human female.

• 2 a female worker or employee.

  ■ a female domestic help.

• 3 a wife or lover.

– phrases
the little woman a condescending way of referring to one's wife.
woman of letters a female scholar or author.
woman of the streets euphemistic, dated a prostitute.
woman to woman in a direct and frank way between two women.

– derivatives
womanless adjective,
womanlike adjective,
womanliness noun,
womanly adjective.

– origin OE wīfmon, -man (see wife, man), a formation peculiar to English, the ancient word being wife.