Dictionary

womanhood en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˈwʊmənhʊd/

Etymology

From Middle English womanhoode, wommanhod, whomanhode, variants of wommanhede. By surface analysis, woman + -hood.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The state or condition of being a woman.
   • "I swear, even in this most holy hour of completed Womanhood, that I will abandon Evil and cherish Good." 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
   • She was a vigorous youth poised on the brink of womanhood.
2. (countable, uncountable) All of the women of a given place, area, or subgroup regarded collectively.
   • […]the white women, several of whom had been watching the massacre of the Negro men, pounced on the Negress. I do not wish to be understood as saying that these women were representatives of the womanhood of East St. Louis. Their faces showed, all too plainly, exactly who and what they were. 1917, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, quoting Carlos F. Hurd, chapter II, in [Untitled, From the St. Louis Post Dispatch], July 3rd, 1917, quoted in The East St. Louis Massacre: The Greatest Outrage of the Century, retrieved 19 Nov 2020, page 12:
   • What was once a multi-million-dollar fantasy of womanhood – exclusively svelte, athletic models in lace-trimmed thongs or diamante push-up bras, each framed by a pair of 12-foot-high angel wings – quickly became a parody so gauche it’s hard to imagine it was ever taken seriously. 2022 July 25, Leah Dolan, “New documentary unearths troubling links between Victoria’s Secret and Jeffrey Epstein”, in CNN, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2022:
   • What hast thou done, / O womanhood of France, / Mother and daughter, sister, sweetheart, wife, / What hast thou done, amid this fateful strife. // To prove the pride of thine inheritance / In this fair land of freedom and romance? 1920 [1909], Henry Van Dyke, “The Red Flower and Golden Stars”, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, new and revised edition, dated to 1914–1916, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, Jeanne d’Arc Returns, page 384, lines 1–5:
   • There was only one thing to be done: call out, start the alarm, set the heather on fire! Awaken the womanhood of America to free the motherhood of the world! 1913, Rachel Galvin, quoting Margaret Sanger, “Margaret Sanger's "Deeds of Terrible Virtue"”, in Humanities, volume 19, number 5, National Endowment for the Humanities, published 1988, archived from the original on 05 Jan 2017:
3. (countable, uncountable) The idealized nature of a woman: all of the characteristics traditionally and ideally ascribed to womanliness regarded collectively.
   • From the kitchen comes the even murmur of their voices. Mother and daughter: the protocols of womanhood being passed on, generation to generation. 2005, J. M. Coetzee, “Four”, in Slow Man, New York: Viking, →ISBN, page 31:
   • She had cast off the terror of the leaping flame, the cold power of judgment that was even now being done, and the wise sadness of the tombs - cast them off and put them behind her, like the white shroud she wore, and now stood out the incarnation of lovely tempting womanhood, made more perfect - and in a way more spiritual - than ever woman was before. 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
4. (countable, uncountable) The self-concept of a woman with respect to her possession of the various qualities traditionally and ideally ascribed to womanliness; a woman's sense or view of herself as being more or less womanly.
5. (countable, euphemistic, uncountable) The female genitalia, especially the vulva.
   • Easing down to her panties slowly as if investigating a carrier of a dangerous plague, both hands were quivering like it was contagious while feeling extraordinarily alarmed, he commenced to inspect her womanhood. 2007, Mark A. Cherpak, Circle of Fear: Uncharted Worlds, page 264:

Forms

Antonyms

mankind · mannishness · manliness · manhood · manhood · manhood · manhood

Coordinates

manhood · manhood · boyhood · girlhood

Hypernyms

adulthood · junk

Relateds

trans womanhood · boyhood · girlhood · childhood

Synonyms

womanliness · womankind[universal]] or worldwide> · womanishness

Translations (39)

la muliebris status (state of being a woman) · sv kvinnlighet (qualities considered typical for a woman) · tr kadınlık (state of being a woman) · ru же́нственность (state of being a woman) · uk жіно́цтво (women as a group) · ka ქალურობა (qualities considered typical for a woman) · mi hunga wāhine (women as a group) · ka ქალობა (state of being a woman) · ru же́нский пол (women as a group) · de alle Frauen (women as a group) · ka მდედრობითი სქესი (women as a group) · de Frausein (state of being a woman) · hi नारीत्व (state of being a woman) · hi स्त्रीत्व (state of being a woman) · de Fraulichkeit (qualities considered typical for a woman) · fi naiseus (state of being a woman) · lv sievišķība (qualities considered typical for a woman) · fr féminité (qualities considered typical for a woman) · hi स्त्रीता (state of being a woman) · mr बाईपण (state of being a woman) · ru же́нщины (women as a group) · bg же́нственост (qualities considered typical for a woman) · ru же́нственность (qualities considered typical for a woman) · bg жените (women as a group) · fi naisellisuus (qualities considered typical for a woman) · fi naisväki (women as a group) · mr स्त्रीत्व (qualities considered typical for a woman) · te స్త్రీత్వము (state of being a woman) · sv kvinnlighet (state of being a woman) · ka ქალები (women as a group) · la muliēbritās (qualities considered typical for a woman) · ka სუსტი სქესი (women as a group) · de Fraulichkeit (state of being a woman) · mi wahinetanga (state of being a woman) · de Weiblichkeit (state of being a woman) · fi naiset (women as a group) · de Frauen (women as a group) · fr féminité (state of being a woman) · es feminidad (qualities considered typical for a woman)