Did you mean: female, Female (film), Female (1933 Comedy Film), Female (1924 Romance Film)

Results for female
On this page:
 
Dictionary:

female

  ('māl') pronunciation
adj.
    1. Of or denoting the sex that produces ova or bears young.
    2. Characteristic of or appropriate to this sex; feminine.
    3. Consisting of members of this sex. See Usage Note at lady.
  1. Botany.
    1. Designating an organ, such as a pistil or ovary, that functions in producing seeds after fertilization.
    2. Bearing pistils but not stamens; pistillate: female flowers.
  2. Having a recessed part, such as a slot or receptacle, designed to receive a complementary male part: the female section of an electrical outlet.
n.
  1. A member of the sex that produces ova or bears young.
  2. A woman or girl.
  3. Botany. A plant having only pistillate flowers.

[Middle English, alteration (influenced by male, male) of femelle, from Old French, from Latin fēmella, diminutive of fēmina, woman.]

femaleness fe'male'ness n.

SYNONYMS  female, feminine, womanlike, womanly, womanish, effeminate, ladylike. These adjectives mean of or characteristic of women. Female categorizes any living thing by gender or sex: the female population; a female kitten; a female plant. Feminine refers to what is considered characteristic of women: feminine intuition. Womanlike applies to qualities of a woman: womanlike resolve. Womanly describes qualities regarded as becoming to a woman: womanly sympathy. Womanish suggests qualities associated with or suggestive of women: womanish attitudes. Effeminate applies to men who exhibit attributes traditionally associated with women: an effeminate actor. Ladylike applies to what is regarded as befitting refined or well-mannered women: ladylike manners.


 
 
Thesaurus: female

adjective

    Of, relating to, or characteristic of women: distaff, feminine, womanish, womanly. See gender.

 
Antonyms: female

n

Definition: woman
Antonyms: male


 

1. an individual of the sex that produces ova or bears young.
2. feminine.

  • f. genital system anomalies — includes hermaphroditism, freemartinism, ovarian hypogenesis and aplasia, imperforate hymen, segmental aplasia of the paramesonephric duct, including uterus unicornis, uterus didelphys double cervix, cervical diverticula.
  • f. pseudohermaphrodite — see pseudohermaphroditism.
 
A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce


n.

One of the opposing, or unfair, sex.

    The Maker, at Creation's birth,
    With living things had stocked the earth.
    From elephants to bats and snails,
    They all were good, for all were males.
    But when the Devil came and saw
    He said:  "By Thine eternal law
    Of growth, maturity, decay,
    These all must quickly pass away
    And leave untenanted the earth
    Unless Thou dost establish birth" --
    Then tucked his head beneath his wing
    To laugh -- he had no sleeve -- the thing
    With deviltry did so accord,
    That he'd suggested to the Lord.
    The Master pondered this advice,
    Then shook and threw the fateful dice
    Wherewith all matters here below
    Are ordered, and observed the throw;
    Then bent His head in awful state,
    Confirming the decree of Fate.
    From every part of earth anew
    The conscious dust consenting flew,
    While rivers from their courses rolled
    To make it plastic for the mould.
    Enough collected (but no more,
    For niggard Nature hoards her store)
    He kneaded it to flexible clay,
    While Nick unseen threw some away.
    And then the various forms He cast,
    Gross organs first and finer last;
    No one at once evolved, but all
    By even touches grew and small
    Degrees advanced, till, shade by shade,
    To match all living things He'd made
    Females, complete in all their parts
    Except (His clay gave out) the hearts.
    "No matter," Satan cried; "with speed
    I'll fetch the very hearts they need" --
    So flew away and soon brought back
    The number needed, in a sack.
    That night earth range with sounds of strife --
    Ten million males each had a wife;
    That night sweet Peace her pinions spread
    O'er Hell -- ten million devils dead!
                                                                  G.J.


 

A plant having only pistillate flowers.

 
Word Tutor: female
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: n. - An animal that produces gametes (ova) that can be fertilized by male gametes (spermatozoa); A person who belongs to the sex that can have babies.

pronunciation And I will show of male and female that either is but the equal of the other. — Walt Whitman

 
Wikipedia: female


The hand mirror and comb of the Roman Goddess Venus is often used to represent the female sex
Enlarge
The hand mirror and comb of the Roman Goddess Venus is often used to represent the female sex

Female (♀) is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces ova (egg cells). The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon is produced by the male. A female individual cannot reproduce sexually without access to the gametes of a male (an exception is parthenogenesis). Some organisms can reproduce both sexually and asexually.

There is no single genetic mechanism behind sex differences in different species and the existence of two sexes seems to have evolved multiple times independently in different evolutionary lineages. Other than the defining difference in the type of gamete produced, differences between males and females in one lineage cannot always be predicted by differences in another. The concept is not limited to animals; egg cells are produced by chytrids, diatoms, water molds and land plants, among others. In land plants, female and male designate not only the egg- and sperm-producing organisms and structures, but also the structures of the sporophytes that give rise to male and female plants.

Sex determination

The sex of a particular organism may be determined by a number of factors. These may be genetic or environmental, or may naturally change during the course of an organism's life. Although most species with male and female sexes have individuals that are either male or female, hermaphroditic animals have both male and female reproductive organs.

Genetic determination

Most mammals, including humans, are genetically determined as such by the XY sex-determination system where males have an XY (as opposed to XX) sex chromosome. During reproduction, a male can give either an X sperm or a Y sperm, while a female can only give an X egg. A Y sperm and an X egg produce a boy, while an X sperm and an X egg produce a girl. The ZW sex-determination system, where males have a ZZ (as opposed to ZW) sex chromosome may be found in birds and some insects and other organisms. Members of Hymenoptera, such as ants and bees, are determined by haplodiploidy, where most males are haploid and females and some sterile males are diploid.

Environmental determination

In some species of reptiles, including alligators, sex is determined by the temperature at which the egg is incubated. Other species, such as some snails, practice sex change: adults start out male, then become female. In tropical clown fish, the dominant individual in a group becomes female while the other ones are male.

In some arthropods, sex is determined by infection. Their sex is altered by bacteria of the genus Wolbachia; some species consist entirely of ZZ individuals, with sex determined by the presence of Wolbachia.

Mammalian female

The mammalian female is characterised by having two copies of the X chromosome as opposed to the male which carries only one X and one smaller Y chromosome. To compensate for the difference in size, one of the female's X chromosomes is randomly inactivated in each cell. Conversely in birds it is the female who is heterozygote and carries a Z and a W chromosome whilst the male carries two Z chromosomes.

The distinguishing characteristic of mammalian species is the presence of mammary glands on the female. The mammary glands are modified sweat glands that produce milk, which is used to feed the young during the period of time shortly after birth. Only mammals have the capacity to produce milk. The presence of mammary glands is most obvious on humans, due to the tendency of the female human body to store large amounts of fatty tissue near the nipples, resulting in prominent breasts. However, mammary glands are present in all mammals, although they are vestigial in male organisms.

Mammalian females are also unique in that they all bear live young (with the exception of monotremes, which lay eggs.) However, there are non-mammalian animals (such as sharks) whose eggs hatch inside their bodies, which gives the appearance that they bear live young. m Soomro

Symbols

A common symbol used to represent the female gender is ♀ (Unicode: U+2640 Alt codes: Alt+12), a circle with a small cross underneath. This symbol also represents the planet Venus and is a stylized representation of the goddess Venus' hand mirror.

Etymology and Usage

The word female comes from the Latin femella, the diminuative form of femina, meaning 'woman', which is not actually related to the word 'male.' The word was probably originally femella, meaning "young girl". In the late 14th century, the English spelling was altered so that the word paralleled the spelling of "male".

The word female is generally considered neutral when used as an adjective; when used as a noun, it is often regarded as derogatory. Female judge would be preferable to woman judge; "This judge is a woman" would be preferable to "This judge is a female." There are exceptions: League of Women Voters is a name chosen by the mostly-female members of the League. The American Heritage Dictionary and the Random House Dictionary are not completely clear on this point, which is a sensitive point: it is hard to find neutral terms for women performing jobs once reserved for men, because these women generally insist that they belong there; and many other people—including some women—insist that they do not.

The phrase the female, in the sense of the female sex or the class of all wowen, figures prominently in the fist act ofHenry V, in which Henry's bishops discuss with him the right of the French King to his throne—and Henry's right to usurp it. They conclude that the salic law cited by the Flench is not really French, but German, and that Henry can properly invade France, thus prolonging the Hundred Years' War.

Sources

Ayers, Donald M. English Words from Latin and Greek Elements. Second Edition. 1986. University of Arizona Press. United States.

See also


 
Translations: Translations for: Female

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - kvindelig, af hunkøn, hun-, kvinde-
n. - kvinde, hunkønsvæsen, hun, hunplante

Nederlands (Dutch)
vrouw/meisje, wijfje, bloem met alleen stampers, vrouwelijk, met stampers, hol deel

Français (French)
adj. - (Bot, Zool) femelle, féminin, de femme, (Élec) femelle
n. - (Bot, Zool) femelle, bonne femme (péj), greluche

Deutsch (German)
n. - Frau, Weibchen
adj. - weiblich

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - άνθρωπος ή ζώο θηλυκού γένους, θηλυκό, γυναίκα
adj. - θηλυκός, γυναικείος

Italiano (Italian)
femmina, femminile

Português (Portuguese)
n. - mulher (f), animal fêmea
adj. - feminino (f), fêmea

Русский (Russian)
самка, гайка, внутренняя резьба, женского пола

Español (Spanish)
adj. - relativo a la hembra
n. - hembra, femenino

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - fruntimmer (neds.), kvinna, hona (zool.), honblomma (bot.)
adj. - kvinno-, kvinnlig, hon-

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
女的, 雌性的, 雌的, 阴的, 母的, 内孔的, 女人, 雌性植物, 雌性动物

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 女的, 雌性的, 雌的, 陰的, 母的, 內孔的
n. - 女人, 雌性植物, 雌性動物

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 여성의 , 암컷의
n. - 여자 , 암컷

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 女性, 雌
adj. - 女の, 女性の, 雌の, 受けるほうの

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) أنثى (صفه) أنثوي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮חלול, נקבי‬
n. - ‮נקבה, אישה, של נקבה‬


 
Best of the Web: Female

Some good "female" pages on the web:


American Sign Language
commtechlab.msu.edu
 
 
 

Did you mean: female, Female (film), Female (1933 Comedy Film), Female (1924 Romance Film)

Join the WikiAnswers Q&A community. Post a question or answer questions about "Female" at WikiAnswers.

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Answers Corporation Antonyms. © 1999-2008 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Veterinary Dictionary. Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved.  Read more
Devil's Dictionary. Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, 1911  Read more
Gardener's Dictionary. Taylor's Dictionary for Gardeners, by Frances Tenenbaum. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved.
eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Female" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

Search for answers directly from your browser with the FREE Answers.com Toolbar!  
Click here to download now. 

Get Answers your way! Check out all our free tools and products.

On this page:   E-mail   print Print  Link  

Keep Reading

Mentioned In: