femininity

From Middle English femynynytee, femyninytee, variants of femynyte (archaic modern English feminity), equivalent to feminine +‎ -ity.

• IPA^(key): /fɛmɪˈnɪnɪti/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fem‧i‧nin‧i‧ty

femininity (usually uncountable, plural femininities)

1. The sum of all attributes that are feminine or convey womanhood.

   Synonyms: feminineness, womanlikeness

   Antonyms: manlikeness, masculinity

   • 2005 April 17, Francine Rose, “'The Peabody Sisters': Reflected Glory”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     It's almost eerie, in the wake of the Lawrence Summers controversy, to encounter the words of an earlier Harvard president, John Kirkland, a "friend and mentor" of Elizabeth's, who advised her that if any woman "is raised by genius and knowledge above the level of her sex, her neglect of attention appropriate to the best half of creation, attentions called femininities, will more than counterbalance all her advantages and reduce her below other women."

   • 2007 February 6, Cathy Horyn, “Young Spirits, One of Them an Old Master”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     A contributing factor to this slightly regressive femininity may have been the sugary fabrics (silver lamé, tulle over sequins) and the meringuelike puffs and baby Googums bows at the neck.

   • 2012, Jo Reger, Everywhere and Nowhere, page 160:

     One outcome of the idea of fluid masculinity and femininity is the notion of genderqueerness.