WOMAN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does woman mean? 

• WOMAN (noun)
  The noun WOMAN has 4 senses:

1. an adult female person (as opposed to a man)

2. a female person who plays a significant role (wife or mistress or girlfriend) in the life of a particular man

3. a human female employed to do housework

4. women as a class

  Familiarity information: WOMAN used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WOMAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An adult female person (as opposed to a man)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

adult female; woman

Context example:

the woman kept house while the man hunted

Hypernyms ("woman" is a kind of...):

adult; grownup (a fully developed person from maturity onward)

female; female person (a person who belongs to the sex that can have babies)

Meronyms (parts of "woman"):

adult female body; woman's body (the body of an adult woman)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "woman"):

nullipara ((obstetrics) a woman who has never give birth to a child)

heroine (a woman possessing heroic qualities or a woman who has performed heroic deeds)

inamorata (a woman with whom you are in love or have an intimate relationship)

jezebel (a shameless impudent scheming woman)

jilt (a woman who jilts a lover)

lady (a polite name for any woman)

maenad (an unnaturally frenzied or distraught woman)

materfamilias; matriarch (a female head of a family or tribe)

matriarch (a feisty older woman with a big bosom (as drawn in cartoons))

matron (a woman in charge of nursing in a medical institution)

mestiza (a woman of mixed racial ancestry (especially mixed European and Native American ancestry))

fancy woman; kept woman; mistress (an adulterous woman; a woman who has an ongoing extramarital sexual relationship with a man)

mother figure (a woman who evokes the feelings usually reserved for a mother)

nanny; nurse; nursemaid (a woman who is the custodian of children)

gravida (a pregnant woman)

houri; nymph (a voluptuously beautiful young woman)

nymphet (a sexually attractive young woman)

old woman (a woman who is old)

bawd; cocotte; cyprian; fancy woman; harlot; lady of pleasure; prostitute; sporting lady; tart; whore; woman of the street; working girl (a woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money)

shiksa; shikse (a derogatory term used by Jews to refer to non-Jewish women)

beauty; dish; knockout; looker; lulu; mantrap; peach; ravisher; smasher; stunner; sweetheart (a very attractive or seductive looking woman)

sylph (a slender graceful young woman)

unmarried woman (a woman who is not married)

vestal (a chaste woman)

Wac (a member of the Women's Army Corps)

Wave (a member of the women's reserve of the United States Navy; originally organized during World War II but now no longer a separate branch)

widow; widow woman (a woman whose husband is dead especially one who has not remarried)

married woman; wife (a married woman; a man's partner in marriage)

wonder woman (a woman who can be a successful wife and have a professional career at the same time)

girlfriend (any female friend)

white woman (a woman who is White)

amazon; virago (a large strong and aggressive woman)

maenad ((Greek mythology) a woman participant in the orgiastic rites of Dionysus)

bachelor girl; bachelorette (a young unmarried woman who lives alone)

baggage (a worthless or immoral woman)

ball-breaker; ball-buster (a demanding woman who destroys men's confidence)

B-girl; bar girl (a woman employed by a bar to act as a companion to men customers)

bas bleu; bluestocking (a woman having literary or intellectual interests)

bridesmaid; maid of honor (an unmarried woman who attends the bride at a wedding)

broad (slang term for a woman)

cat (a spiteful woman gossip)

Cinderella (a woman whose merits were not been recognized but who then achieves sudden success and recognition)

coquette; flirt; minx; prickteaser; tease; vamp; vamper (a seductive woman who uses her sex appeal to exploit men)

dame; gentlewoman; lady; ma'am; madam (a woman of refinement)

deb; debutante (a young woman making her debut into society)

divorcee; grass widow (a divorced woman or a woman who is separated from her husband)

ex; ex-wife (a woman who was formerly a particular man's wife)

dominatrix (a dominating woman (especially one who plays that role in a sadomasochistic sexual relationship))

donna (an Italian woman of rank)

Delilah; enchantress; femme fatale; siren; temptress (a woman who is considered to be dangerously seductive)

eyeful (a strikingly beautiful woman)

geisha; geisha girl (a Japanese woman trained to entertain men with conversation and singing and dancing)

fille; girl; miss; missy; young lady; young woman (a young female)

girl (a friendly informal reference to a grown woman)

girl; girlfriend; lady friend (a girl or young woman with whom a man is romantically involved)

gold digger (a woman who associates with or marries a rich man in order to get valuables from him through gifts or a divorce settlement)

Instance hyponyms:

Eve ((Old Testament) Adam's wife in Judeo-Christian mythology: the first woman and mother of the human race; God created Eve from Adam's rib and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden)

Antonym:

man (an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman))

Derivation:

womanhood (the status of a woman)

womanhood (women as a class)

womanhood (the state of being an adult woman)

womanise (have amorous affairs; of men)

womanize (to give a (more) feminine, effeminate, or womanly quality or appearance to)

womanly (befitting or characteristic of a woman especially a mature woman)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A female person who plays a significant role (wife or mistress or girlfriend) in the life of a particular man

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Context example:

he was faithful to his woman

Hypernyms ("woman" is a kind of...):

female; female person (a person who belongs to the sex that can have babies)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Antonym:

man (a male person who plays a significant role (husband or lover or boyfriend) in the life of a particular woman)

Derivation:

womanise; womanize (have amorous affairs; of men)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A human female employed to do housework

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

char; charwoman; cleaning lady; cleaning woman; woman

Context example:

I have a woman who comes in four hours a day while I write

Hypernyms ("woman" is a kind of...):

cleaner (someone whose occupation is cleaning)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Women as a class

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

fair sex; woman; womanhood

Context example:

the fair sex gathered on the veranda

Hypernyms ("woman" is a kind of...):

class; social class; socio-economic class; stratum (people having the same social, economic, or educational status)

Holonyms ("woman" is a member of...):

womankind (women as distinguished from men)

Derivation:

womanhood (the status of a woman)

womanhood (the state of being an adult woman)

 Context examples 

"That is the woman I want," said he.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

He did not think of her flesh as flesh,—which was new to him; for of the women he had known that was the only way he thought.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I never saw any woman who excited, as Elizabeth does, my warmest admiration and affection.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

An ivory-faced and silvery-haired old woman opened the door.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

"What should I see besides Aunt Reed in the apartment?—a man or a woman?"

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Don't you feel how splendid it is that a young man and a young woman should be able to talk face to face as we have talked?

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But if you think I could have hurt that woman, then you don’t know either me or her.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They happen in the first month of pregnancy, often before a woman even knows that she is pregnant.

(Neural Tube Defects, NIH: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)

You saw the woman’s face at the sign of danger.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)