virile

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“
"When a girl chooses for the father of her children a man who is clean and strong and virile, and on top of that her lover, she is giving them the best possible chance in life."

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Definitions (10)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. adjective Of, relating to, or having the characteristics of an adult male.
  2. adjective Having or showing masculine spirit, strength, vigor, or power. See Synonyms at male.
  3. adjective Capable of performing sexually as a male; potent.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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Examples (50)

  • THE WORLD IN WHICH HE LIVED I Now let us consider what the world was like in which this virile, accurate and persevering spirit had grown up. —  Albert Durer
  • These two were so precisely carved and so obviously virile -- the male a veritable Hercules and the female a very passable Venus -- that it would have been a crime to split them. —  F ;SF; - vol 099 issue 01 - July 2000
  • Men were created to be vital, virile, and masculine. —  Find Free Articles - ArticlesBase
  • If you're young, virile, and have the thickest pair of beer goggles ever, a 107-year-old Chinese virgin would like to have a chat with you: —  BlogWonks
  • Fortunately the proportion of men who thus transgress is not large Let us stand for these things: (1) An equal standard of purity for men and women_, (2) A strenuous, virile, continent manhood_, (3) Sexual temperance in wedlock APPENDIX APPENDIX Personal conferences and correspondence with young men regarding the solution of their problems have brought out several questions that are so frequently repeated as to make it evident that the answering of them would serve the purpose of clearing up certain questions or doubts, more or less important in the minds of many young men. —  The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of Reproduction Also Sexual Hygiene with Special Reference to the Male
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

manly ·  vigorous ·  masculine ·  forceful ·  vital ·  vibrant ·  masterful ·  robust ·  self-reliant ·  hardy ·  clean-cut ·  penetrate
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French viril, from Latin virīlis, from vir, man; see wī-ro- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Old French (and F.) viril = Spanish Portuguese viril = Italian virile, from Latin virilis, of a man, manly, from vir, a man, a hero, = Greek ήρως (for Νήρως), a hero (see hero), = Sanskrit vīra, a hero, heroic, = Zend vira, a hero, = Lithuanian wyra, a man, = Irish fear = Gothic (Moesogothic) wair = Old Saxon Old High German wer, a man (see wer, wergild, werwolf, etc.); root unknown. From Latin vir are also ult. English virility, virago, virtue, etc., and the second element in duumvir, triumvir, decemvir, etc.
 

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/ˈvɪrɪl/
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