feminine
/'feminin/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Adjective:
- Characteristic of or associated with women: Having qualities, characteristics, or appearances traditionally or stereotypically associated with women and girls, such as grace, gentleness, or delicacy.
- Of grammatical gender: Belonging to a class of words (nouns, pronouns, adjectives) that is distinguished by specific inflections and often associated with female referents in some languages.
Noun:
- A grammatical gender category: In languages with grammatical gender, the class (feminine gender) that includes words for most female beings and often other nouns assigned to this category by convention.
Examples of Usage
Adjective:
- She has a very feminine voice. (Her voice has qualities typically associated with women.)
- The design of the room was soft and feminine. (The room's design featured delicate, traditionally woman-associated aesthetics.)
- In French, the word "table" is a feminine noun. ("Table" belongs to the feminine grammatical gender class.)
Noun:
- In German, the article "die" marks the feminine. ("Die" indicates a noun is of the feminine grammatical gender.)
- The word for "sun" is in the feminine in this language. (The noun "sun" is classified as belonging to the feminine gender category.)
Advanced Usage
- "the feminine": Used to refer abstractly to qualities, principles, or aspects considered characteristic of women.
- The artist explored the balance between the masculine and the feminine in her sculpture.
- In linguistics: Used to describe inflectional patterns or agreement rules.
- The adjective must take the feminine plural ending to agree with the noun.
Variants and Related Words
- Femininity (n): The quality or state of being feminine.
- Her style embodies classic femininity.
- Femininely (adv): In a feminine manner.
- She was dressed very femininely.
- Feminize (v): To make or become feminine.
- Some species feminize under certain environmental conditions.
Synonyms
- Adjective (for qualities): Womanly, ladylike, delicate, graceful.
- Noun (for grammar): Feminine gender.
Antonyms
- Adjective: Masculine, manly.
- Noun: Masculine (gender).
Related Phrases
- Feminine ending: In prosody or music, a line or measure ending on an unstressed syllable or beat.
- The poet's use of a feminine ending created a soft, flowing rhythm.
- Feminine rhyme: A rhyme between stressed syllables followed by one or more identical unstressed syllables (e.g., "motion" and "ocean").
- The verse uses feminine rhyme extensively.
Adjective
- (music or poetry) ending on an unaccented beat or syllable
- a feminine ending
- befitting or characteristic of a woman especially a mature woman
- womanly virtues of gentleness and compassion
- of grammatical gender
- associated with women and not with men
- feminine intuition
Noun
- a gender that refers chiefly (but not exclusively) to females or to objects classified as female