female

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   being the sex (of plant or animal) that produces fertilizable gametes (ova) from which offspring develop

   a female heir

2. 2
   adj

   for or pertaining to or composed of women or girls

   the female lead in the play

3. 3
   adj

   characteristic of or peculiar to a woman

   female sensitiveness

4. 4
   adj

   Belonging to the sex which typically produces eggs (ova), or to the gender which is typically associated with it.

   female authors, the leading male and female artists, a female bird cooing at a male

5. 5
   adj

   Characteristic of this sex/gender. (Compare feminine, womanly.)

   stereotypically female pastimes, an insect with typically female coloration

6. 6
   adj

   Tending to lead to or regulate the development of sexual characteristics typical of this sex.

   the female chromosome

7. 7
   adj

   Feminine; of the feminine grammatical gender.

   The teacher's voice inflects the pulse of nêhiyawêwin as he teaches us. He says a prayer in the first class. Nouns, we learn, have a gender. In French, nouns are male or female, but in Cree, nouns are living or non-living, animate or inanimate.

8. 8
   adj

   Lacking the F factor, and able to receive DNA from another bacterium which does have this factor (a male).

   In this process, one bacterium designated the male bacterium transfers its DNA into the female bacterium. Bacteria are determined to be male or female by a small piece of DNA, called F-plasmid, or sex factor. Bacteria with this small piece of DNA are labeled as males, and bacteria that do not have this factor are considered females.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *fēmanā Latin fēmina Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -lus Latin fēmella Old French femelebor. Middle English femele Middle English female English female From Middle English female, an alteration of Middle English femele, from Old French femele, femelle (“female”), from Medieval Latin fēmella (“a female”), from Latin fēmella (“a girl, a young female, a young woman”), diminutive of fēmina (“a woman”). The English spelling and pronunciation were remodelled under the influence of male, which is otherwise not etymologically…