heroine

See also héroïne

English

Etymology

Via Latin Latin heroina from late Ancient Greek (2nd century) ἡρωΐνη (hêrôḯnê), a feminine equivalent of ἥρως (hếrôs, “hero”) "hero, demigod". English from 1650. The sense of "female lead character" is from 1715.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: heroin

Noun

heroine (plural heroines)

1. A female hero
2. A female lead character

Usage notes

In the sense 1, it is more common to say hero today.

• She is an American hero.

Translations

female hero

Arabic: بطلة (ar) (baTala) f. Armenian: հերոսուհի (hy) (herosuhi) Catalan: heroïna (ca) f. Chinese: Mandarin: 女英雄 (cmn) (nǚ-yīngxióng), (main female role) 女主角 (cmn) (nǚzhǔjué) Czech: hrdinka (cs) f. Danish: heltinde en Dutch: heldin (nl) f. Esperanto: heroino (eo) Finnish: sankaritar (fi) French: héroïne (fr) f. German: Heldin (de) f., Heroine (de) f. Greek: ηρωίδα (el) (iroída) f.

Hungarian: hősnő (hu) Ido: heroino (io) Japanese: 勇婦 (ja) (ゆうふ, yūfu), ヒロイン (ja) (heroin), 烈女 (ja) (れつじょ, retsujo) Khmer: នារីក្លាហាន (km) (nea ry klar harn), វីរនារី (km) (vi reak nea ry) Latvian: varone (lv) f. Norwegian: heltinne (no) m. Polish: bohaterka (pl) f. Portuguese: heroína (pt) f. Russian: героиня (ru) (geroínja) f. Scottish Gaelic: bana-ghaisgeach f. Spanish: heroína (es) f. Swedish: hjältinna (sv) Turkish: kadın kahraman (tr) West Frisian: heldinne (fy) Yiddish: העלדין (yi) (heldin) f.