female
Noun pluralfemales
Pluralfemales
- 1Of or belonging to the sex that produces eggs, or to the gender usually linked with it, including what shapes that sex's features.
The clinic offers screenings designed specifically for female patients.
In this species, female individuals are noticeably larger than the males.
UsageMost often before a noun: female patients, the female bird.
Oppositemale
Note
It can also describe gender as a present state, as in Rick Riordan's "are you female today?"
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The quoted question occurs in Rick Riordan's fiction, as dialogue addressed to Alex rather than a personal statement by Riordan. en.wiktionary.org
- 2A person, animal, or plant of the female sex: one that produces eggs or bears fruit.
The survey counted forty males and thirty-six females in the sample.
Each female in the study was interviewed twice.
UsageOf people it sounds clinical, fine for surveys; in conversation woman or girl is warmer and safer.
Oppositemale
Note
Neutral in science, statistics and forms, where it pairs with male. Used of women in everyday talk, it can sound cold or dismissive, since the same noun covers animals, and many readers object to it; woman is usually the better word. The usage is old: John Brown's Twenty-five Years a Parson in the Wild West (1896) speaks of rarely seeing "the face of a female."
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- John Brown wrote Twenty-five Years a Parson in the Wild West, published in 1896. rsc.byu.edu
- The book provides a historical example of the noun female, describing infrequently seeing "the face of a female." en.wiktionary.org
- 3Showing or having the qualities considered typical of women and girls, or of the egg-producing sex generally.
The portrait captures a distinctly female grace.
Sociologists once debated which behaviors were truly female and which were learned.
UsageOften used with typically or stereotypically: a typically female trait.
Oppositemasculine, male, manly
Note
This sense is broader and reaches animals and sounds too: a female voice, an insect with typically female coloration.
Less common meanings
- 4Having an internal socket or opening into which a matching part fits, as with a connector or pipe fitting.
The female connector accepts the pin from the matching plug.
Thread the male fitting into the female coupling until it sits snug.
Oppositemale
Note
Hardware borrowed male and female as a matched pair. The female part is the one that receives, and the male part is the one that goes in. Female pipe threads are cut on the inside of a fitting so that a male thread can screw into them. Whenever you name one end, expect its partner to be named by the other word.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Hardware uses male and female as paired terms by analogy with sexual anatomy. en.wikipedia.org
- The female part receives the male part; female pipe threads are internal and accept external male threads. swagelok.com
- 5A connector, pipe fitting, or similar part that has an internal socket to receive a matching piece.
The adapter has a male connector on one end and a female on the other, so you can extend almost any cable.
The hose ends in a three-quarter-inch female, so you'll need an adapter to fit the male thread on the pump.
Similarsocket, receptacle
Oppositemale
Note
In the trades the adjective often drops its noun, so a female is simply the receiving end. Fittings are then specified as a pair: Fire Engineering's Handbook for Firefighter I and II (2009) lists an adapter from a 3-inch pipe thread female to a 2½ NH male. The analogy is the one behind the socket adjective.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- The handbook describes an adapter from a 3-inch pipe-thread female to a 2½ NH male; Wiktionary reproduces this passage and attributes it to page 412. en.wiktionary.org
- 6In grammar, belonging to the feminine gender, the class of words a language marks as feminine.
In French every noun is either male or female, so you learn la or le with each one.
German learners are often surprised that the word for girl, Mädchen, isn't female at all but neuter.
Similarfeminine
Note
Grammar normally says feminine. Female in this sense turns up mostly in plain-language teaching, paired with male and sometimes neutral for the genders of French or German nouns. In careful writing, feminine is the safer choice, because female can suggest that a noun names a woman or girl, which grammatical gender does not require.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- A noun's feminine grammatical gender does not require it to denote a woman or girl; French la voile denotes a sail. en.wikipedia.org
- 7Of a bacterium, lacking the F factor and therefore able to receive DNA from a bacterium that carries it.
- 8A bacterium that lacks the F factor and is able to receive DNA from another bacterium that carries it.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of female apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
Latin fēmina ("a woman") had the diminutive fēmella, which in Medieval Latin meant "a female." This became Old French femele, then Middle English femele, which was altered to female. Under the influence of "male," a word with no real etymological link, its English spelling and pronunciation were reshaped.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Latin fēmina meant 'a woman' and had the diminutive fēmella. eige.europa.eu
- Medieval Latin fēmella meant 'a female'. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin fēmella became Old French femele. en.wikipedia.org
- Old French femele became Middle English femele, with the altered form female influenced by male. en.wiktionary.org
- Male influenced the English spelling and pronunciation of female, although the words otherwise have separate etymologies. en.wiktionary.org