woman

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“
But a woman is a woman, and she must be protected.'

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Definitions (40)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (9)

  1. noun An adult female human.
  2. noun Women considered as a group; womankind: "Woman feels the invidious distinctions of sex exactly as the black man does those of color” (Elizabeth Cady Stanton).
  3. noun An adult female human belonging to a specified occupation, group, nationality, or other category. Often used in combination: an Englishwoman; congresswoman; a saleswoman.
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Examples (50)

  • Upload your version of your favorite star's song, or your own, at Hiking the "American Alps" just outside North Cascades National Park A woman is a woman is a woman - and an insult is an insult is an insult —  The Seattle Times
  • Hiking the "American Alps" just outside North Cascades National Park A woman is a woman is a woman - and an insult is an insult is an insult —  The Seattle Times
  • A woman is a woman is a woman - and an insult is an insult is an insult —  The Seattle Times
  • In each of the attacks, a woman was approached from behind, just as the woman Thursday morning was. —  KSL / U.S. / National
  • A 55-year-old man dressed up as a woman was arrested on Saturday, accused of stealing goods worth about 3,500 yen from a shop in the Ikebukuro PARCO department store, police said Monday. —  Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English wimman, variant of wīfman : wīf, woman; see ghwībh- in Indo-European roots + man, person; see man.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English woman, wuman, womman, wumman, wummon, altered (with the common change of wi- to wu-, often spelled wo-) from wimman, wimmon, which stand (with assimilation of fm to mm) for the earlier wifman, wifmon, wyfman (plural women, *wumen, wommen, wummen, wimmen, earlier wifmen, wyfmen), from Anglo-Saxon wīfman, wīfmon, later wimman (plural wīfmen, later wimmen), a woman, literally ‘wife-man,’ i. e. female person, from wīf, a woman, female, + man, man, person (masculine, but used, like L. homo and Greek ἂνθρωπος, in the general sense ‘person, human being’). The compound wīfman is peculiar to Anglo-Saxon, but a similar formation appears in the G. weibs-person. It is notable that it was thought necessary to join wīf, a neuter noun, representing a female person, to man, a masculine noun representing either a male or female person, to form a word denoting a female person exclusively. The assimilation of fm to mm occurs likewise in lemon, formerly and more properly spelled lemman, and in Lammas. The change of initial wi- to wu- occurs also in Anglo-Saxon widu later wudu later English wood, and the spelling of wu- as wo- or woo- to avoid the cumulation of u's or v's (wu-, uuu-, vvv-) occurs in wood, wool, etc. The difference of pronunciation between the singular woman and the plural women, though it has come to distinguish the singular from the plural, is entirely accidental; formerly both pronunciations of the first syllable were in use in both numbers. The proper modern spelling of the plural, as now pronounced, would be wimmen; the spelling women is due to irreg. conformity to the singular woman, which is properly so spelled according to the analogy of wolf, though *wooman, like woolf, would be better, as being then in keeping with wool, wood.
  2. from woman, n.
 

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/ˈwəmən/
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