Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to men or boys; male.
  • adjective Characterized by or possessing qualities traditionally attributed to men, such as aggressiveness.
  • adjective Grammar Relating or belonging to the gender of words or forms that refer chiefly to males or to things grammatically classified as male.
  • adjective Music Ending on an accented beat.
  • noun The masculine gender.
  • noun A word or word form of the masculine gender.
  • noun A male person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Male: opposed to female.
  • Having the distinguishing characteristics of the male sex among human beings, physical or mental; pertaining to a man or to men; of manlike quality: opposed to feminine: as, the masculine element of society; masculine spirit or courage.
  • As applied derogatively to women, unwomanly; bold; forward: as, her manners are coarse and masculine; she has a masculine air or stride.
  • Suitable for the male sex; adapted to or intended for the use of males: as, masculine garments.
  • In grammar, belonging to or having the characteristics of that one of the so-called genders into which the nouns, etc., of some languages are divided which includes as its prominent part the names of male beings; having inflections or forms belonging to such words: as, a masculine noun; a masculine termination. See gender.
  • In botany, relating to stamens: same as male, 2.
  • noun In grammar, the masculine gender; a word of this gender.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of the male sex; not female.
  • adjective Having the qualities of a man; suitable to, or characteristic of, a man; virile; not feminine or effeminate; strong; robust.
  • adjective rare Belonging to males; appropriated to, or used by, males.
  • adjective (Gram.) Having the inflections of, or construed with, words pertaining especially to male beings, as distinguished from feminine and neuter. See Gender.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective pertaining to male humans, men:
  • adjective grammar in many inflected languages:
  • noun grammar The masculine gender.
  • noun That which is masculine.
  • noun rare A man.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective associated with men and not with women
  • adjective (music or poetry) ending on an accented beat or syllable
  • noun a gender that refers chiefly (but not exclusively) to males or to objects classified as male
  • adjective of grammatical gender

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English masculin, from Old French, from Latin masculīnus, from masculus, male, diminutive of mās.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French masculin, from Latin masculīnus, diminutive of masculus ("male, manly"), itself a diminutive of mās ("male").

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Examples

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  • MAscuLinE

    April 22, 2008