womanly

English

Alternative forms

• womonly, womynly (rare feminist spellings; see usage notes at woman)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwʊmənli/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: wom‧an‧ly

• Audio:

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English womanly, wommanlich, wommanly, wommanlych, wummonlich, equivalent to woman +‎ -ly (adjectival suffix).

Adjective

womanly (comparative womanlier, superlative womanliest)

1. Considered typical of, stereotypical of, or appropriate to women; feminine.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     I know that the sound of it moved me more even than her words, it was so very human - so very womanly.

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 149:

     "What I mean, a woman who doesn't go in for booze and sport and cigarettes. Man gets sick of these tough flappers. Give me a womanly woman every time. As I said before, I could see at a glance that you were a thoroughly womanly woman."

2. (rare) Female.

Antonyms

• masculine, male, manly

Coordinate terms

• girly

Derived terms

• womanliness

Translations

having the characteristics of a woman

• Arabic: نِسَوِيّ (nisawiyy)
• Aromanian: muljirescu
• Belarusian: жано́чы (žanóčy), жано́цкі (žanócki)
• Bulgarian: же́нствен (bg) (žénstven), же́нски (bg) (žénski)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 女子氣 / 女子气 (nǚzǐqì)

• Czech: ženský (cs)
• Danish: kvindelig (da)
• Esperanto: virina (eo)
• Finnish: naisellinen (fi)
• French: féminin (fr)
• Georgian: ქალური (kaluri), დედაკაცური (dedaḳacuri)
• German: weiblich (de), fraulich (de)
• Greek: γυναικείος (el) (gynaikeíos)
• Hindi: स्रैण (sraiṇ)
• Hungarian: nőies (hu)
• Indonesian: betina (id)
• Irish: banúil

  Middle Irish: banamail

• Italian: femminile (it), femmineo (it) m, muliebre (it), donnesco (it) m, femminino m
• Japanese: 女らしい (ja) (おんならしい, onnarashii)
• Korean: 여자답다 (yeojadapda), 녀자답다 (nyeojadapda) (North Korea)
• Latin: muliebris (la)
• Latvian: sievišķīgs, sievišķs, sieviešu (lv)
• Macedonian: женствен (ženstven), женски (ženski)
• Manx: benoil
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kvinnelig (no)

  Nynorsk: kvinneleg

• Old English: wīflīċ
• Pashto: ښځينه (ps) (ẍëźina)
• Persian: زنانه (fa) (zanâne)
• Polish: kobiecy (pl), żeński (pl), babi (pl)
• Portuguese: feminino (pt)
• Romanian: feminin (ro), femeiesc (ro), muieresc (ro) (popular)
• Russian: же́нственный (ru) (žénstvennyj), же́нский (ru) (žénskij) (feminine), женоподо́бный (ru) (ženopodóbnyj) (womanlike), ба́бий (ru) (bábij) (pejorative)
• Scottish Gaelic: banail
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: жѐнскӣ

  Latin: žènskī (sh)

• Slovak: ženský (sk)
• Slovene: ženski (sl)
• Spanish: femenino (es), mujeril (es), femenil (es), femíneo (es) m, feminoide, amujerado m, adamado (es) m, ahembrado (es) m, afeminado (es) m
• Swedish: kvinnlig (sv)
• Tajik: занона (tg) (zanona)
• Turkish: kadınsı (tr)
• Ukrainian: жіно́чий (uk) (žinóčyj), жіно́чний (žinóčnyj), жіно́цький (žinócʹkyj), жінкоподі́бний (žinkopodíbnyj) (womanlike)
• Yakut: дьахтардыы (jaqtardïï)

Etymology 2

From Middle English wommanliche, wommanly, equivalent to woman +‎ -ly (adverbial suffix).

Adverb

womanly

1. In the manner of a woman.

   Synonym: (rare) womanlily

   Coordinate term: manly

Middle English

Adjective

womanly

1. alternative form of wommanly