womb

English

Etymology

From Old English wamb, womb, from Germanic, of uncertain further derivation. Cognate with Dutch wam, German Wamme, Wampe (“paunch, belly”), Swedish våmm (“belly”), Danish vom.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /wuːm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːm

Noun

womb (plural wombs)

1. (obsolete) The abdomen or stomach. [8th-17th c.]
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book V:

     And his hede, hym semed,was enamyled with asure, and his shuldyrs shone as the golde, and his wombe was lyke mayles of a merveylous hew [...].

2. (obsolete) The stomach of a person or creature. [8th-18th c.]
   • 1395, John Wycliffe, Bible, Jonah II:

     And þe Lord made redi a gret fish þat he shulde swolewe Ionas; and Ionas was in wombe of þe fish þre daȝes and þre niȝtis.

3. (anatomy) In female mammals, the organ in which the young are conceived and grow until birth; the uterus. [from 8th c.]
4. (figuratively) A place where something is made or formed. [from 15th c.]

Synonyms

• (organ in mammals): uterus, matrix (poetic or literary), belly (poetic or literary)

Translations

organ in mammals

Arabic: رحم (ar) (ráHim) m. Armenian: արգանդ (hy) (argand) Bosnian: maternica (bs) f., utroba (bs) f. Chinese: Mandarin: 子宮 (cmn), 子宫 (cmn) (zǐgōng) Czech: děloha (cs) f. Dutch: baarmoeder (nl) Esperanto: utero (eo) Estonian: emakas Finnish: kohtu (fi) French: utérus (fr) m., ventre (fr) m. German: Mutterleib m., Gebärmutter f., Schoß m. Greek: μήτρα (el) (mítra) f. Guaraní: ye (t-) Hindi: गर्भ (hi) (garbh) m. Hungarian: méh (hu) Indonesian: rahim Interlingua: utero, matrice Italian: utero (it) m., grembo (it) m. Japanese: 子宮 (しきゅう, shikyū)

Korean: 자궁 [子宮] (jagung) Malayalam: ഗര്‍ഭപാത്രം (ml) (garbhapaathram) Old Church Slavonic: чрѣво (črěvo) n. Polish: macica (pl) f. Portuguese: útero (pt) m., matriz (pt) f. Romanian: uter (ro) Russian: матка (ru) (mátka) f., утроба (ru) (utróba) f. Scottish Gaelic: machlag f., broinn f., brù f. Serbian: Cyrillic: материца f., утроба f. Roman: materica f., utroba f. Slovene: maternica (sl) f. Spanish: útero (es) m., matriz (es) f. Swedish: livmoder (sv) c. Telugu: గర్భం (garbham) Tupinambá: ygé (t-) Turkish: rahim (tr) Urdu: گربھ (garbh) m. Volapük: vüm

figuratively: place where something is made or formed

Czech: lůno (cs) n., kolébka (cs) f. Finnish: kehto (fi) French: moule (fr) m. Greek: μήτρα (el) (mítra) f.

Italian: grembo (it) m. Portuguese: útero (pt) m. Scottish Gaelic: broinn (gd) f.

belly — see belly