Female in Different Languages
Discover 'Female' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Female
Afrikaans vroulik | ||
Albanian femër | ||
Amharic ሴት | ||
Arabic أنثى | ||
Armenian իգական | ||
Assamese মহিলা | ||
Aymara warmi | ||
Azerbaijani qadın | ||
Bambara muso | ||
Basque emakumezkoa | ||
Belarusian самка | ||
Bengali মহিলা | ||
Bhojpuri मेहरारू | ||
Bosnian žensko | ||
Bulgarian женски пол | ||
Catalan femení | ||
Cebuano babaye | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 女 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 女 | ||
Corsican femina | ||
Croatian žena | ||
Czech ženský | ||
Danish kvinde | ||
Dhivehi އަންހެން | ||
Dogri जनाना | ||
Dutch vrouw | ||
English female | ||
Esperanto ino | ||
Estonian naissoost | ||
Ewe asi | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) babae | ||
Finnish nainen | ||
French femme | ||
Frisian froulik | ||
Galician femia | ||
Georgian ქალი | ||
German weiblich | ||
Greek θηλυκός | ||
Guarani kuña | ||
Gujarati સ્ત્રી | ||
Haitian Creole fi | ||
Hausa mace | ||
Hawaiian wahine | ||
Hebrew נְקֵבָה | ||
Hindi महिला | ||
Hmong poj niam | ||
Hungarian női | ||
Icelandic kvenkyns | ||
Igbo nwanyi | ||
Ilocano babai | ||
Indonesian perempuan | ||
Irish baineann | ||
Italian femmina | ||
Japanese 女性 | ||
Javanese wadon | ||
Kannada ಹೆಣ್ಣು | ||
Kazakh әйел | ||
Khmer ស្រី | ||
Kinyarwanda igitsina gore | ||
Konkani बायल | ||
Korean 여자 | ||
Krio uman | ||
Kurdish mê | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) مێینە | ||
Kyrgyz аял | ||
Lao ເພດຍິງ | ||
Latin feminam | ||
Latvian sieviete | ||
Lingala ya mwasi | ||
Lithuanian moteris | ||
Luganda -kazi | ||
Luxembourgish weiblech | ||
Macedonian женски | ||
Maithili महिला | ||
Malagasy vehivavy | ||
Malay perempuan | ||
Malayalam പെൺ | ||
Maltese mara | ||
Maori wahine | ||
Marathi मादी | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯅꯨꯄꯤ | ||
Mizo hmeichhia | ||
Mongolian эмэгтэй | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) အမျိုးသမီး | ||
Nepali महिला | ||
Norwegian hunn | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) chachikazi | ||
Odia (Oriya) ମହିଳା | ||
Oromo dhalaa | ||
Pashto ښځينه | ||
Persian زن | ||
Polish płeć żeńska | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) fêmea | ||
Punjabi .ਰਤ | ||
Quechua warmi | ||
Romanian femeie | ||
Russian женский пол | ||
Samoan fafine | ||
Sanskrit महिला | ||
Scots Gaelic boireann | ||
Sepedi mosadi | ||
Serbian женско | ||
Sesotho e motshehadi | ||
Shona mukadzi | ||
Sindhi عورت | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) ගැහැණු | ||
Slovak žena | ||
Slovenian samica | ||
Somali dhadig | ||
Spanish hembra | ||
Sundanese bikangna | ||
Swahili kike | ||
Swedish kvinna | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) babae | ||
Tajik занона | ||
Tamil பெண் | ||
Tatar хатын-кыз | ||
Telugu స్త్రీ | ||
Thai หญิง | ||
Tigrinya ኣንስተይቲ | ||
Tsonga xisati | ||
Turkish kadın | ||
Turkmen aýal | ||
Twi (Akan) ɔbaa koko | ||
Ukrainian самка | ||
Urdu عورت | ||
Uyghur ئايال | ||
Uzbek ayol | ||
Vietnamese giống cái | ||
Welsh benyw | ||
Xhosa umntu obhinqileyo | ||
Yiddish ווייַבלעך | ||
Yoruba obinrin | ||
Zulu owesifazane |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | "Vroulik" stems from the Dutch word "vrouwelijke", with the suffix "-lik" denoting a feminine quality. |
| Albanian | The origin of the Albanian word 'femër' is unknown, though it may originate from the Illyrian language, Proto-Albanian, or Latin (possibly from 'femina'). |
| Amharic | "ሴት" (female) is derived from the root "ሰት" (to give birth), emphasizing the female's reproductive role. |
| Arabic | أنثى means both "female" and "left", as in the left hand. |
| Armenian | The Armenian word "իգական" is cognate with Latin "feminine", both meaning "womanly" and derived from an Indo-European word meaning "mother". |
| Azerbaijani | The word "qadın" is of Old Turkic origin, and can also mean "wife" or "respected lady" in certain contexts. |
| Basque | The Basque word "emakumezkoa" literally translates as "the one who has a man". |
| Belarusian | The word "самка" can also refer to a female animal. |
| Bengali | "মহিলা" is derived from the Sanskrit word "mahilā", which originally meant "a great or important woman". |
| Bosnian | In most Slavic languages, the word |
| Bulgarian | The word "женски пол" derives from the Proto-Slavic root *žen- meaning "woman", and is cognate with other Slavic languages such as Russian "женский пол" and Polish "żeński". |
| Catalan | The word "femení" in Catalan does not mean "feminine" but instead relates to "feme", meaning "woman" and "of the faith". |
| Cebuano | Babaye derives from the Proto-Austronesian word *bahi ('woman') likely originally meaning 'one who gives birth'. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | The character "女" can also mean "witch" or "shamaness" and is often used as a radical in characters related to women. |
| Chinese (Traditional) | The character "女" (nǚ) in Traditional Chinese represents not only the concept of "female" but also "weak," "soft," and "gentle." |
| Corsican | 'Fimina' derives from the Latin name for 'woman' - 'femina'. |
| Croatian | The word 'žena' is thought to ultimately derive from an Indo-European word meaning 'to give birth' |
| Czech | "Ženský" can also refer to a woman's clothing store or to a group of women gossiping. |
| Danish | The word "kvinde" originally meant "woman" or "wife" in Old Norse and shares a root with the English word "queen". |
| Dutch | In early Dutch, 'vrouw' meant 'lord' or 'ruler', and the feminine word 'vrouwe' was derived from it. |
| Esperanto | The name "ino" originally stems from the English adjective "feminine" in 1887 by Esperanto's creator L.L. Zamenhof. |
| Estonian | Some scholars propose that the Estonian word "naissoost" (female) is derived from a Proto-Uralic word meaning "wife". |
| Finnish | The word "Nainen" in Finnish derives from the Proto-Uralic word "*naine" meaning "woman" or "wife". |
| French | In French, 'femme' can refer to a woman of any age, including girls and young women, while in English, 'female' generally refers to adult women or animals. |
| Frisian | The word "froulik" in Frisian is a diminutive of the word "frou" meaning "wife" or "lady". |
| Galician | In Galician, the word "femia" also has historical connotations related to "fear" and "protection". |
| Georgian | The Georgian word for 'female', "ქალი", also refers to a 'bride' and comes from the Proto-Kartvelian root *gʷnali, which had the same meanings in the Proto-Kartvelian language from which Georgian, Svan, and Laz evolved. |
| German | Weiblich was derived from the Middle High German „wiplich“, which referred to a pregnant woman. |
| Greek | The word "θηλυκός" also means "soft" or "delicate" in Greek, capturing the perceived physical characteristics associated with femininity. |
| Gujarati | In Sanskrit, 'strī' originally meant 'woman', 'wife', or 'mistress', but in Pali, it came to refer to 'woman' in general. |
| Haitian Creole | In Haitian Creole, "fi" means "daughter", but can also mean "girl" or "young female animal." |
| Hausa | The Hausa word 'mace' can also refer to a 'wife' or a 'female slave'. |
| Hawaiian | The Hawaiian word "wahine" also refers to goddesses and women in general, as the female counterpart to "kane" for men. |
| Hebrew | The Hebrew word "נְקֵבָה" also translates as "perforation", "passage" and "hole" and is cognate with the Akkadian word "naqbu" meaning "cave"} |
| Hindi | "महिला" is derived from the Sanskrit word "महिल" meaning "big". This word was used to denote a woman of importance or a queen. |
| Hmong | The Hmong word "poj niam" can also mean "younger sister" or "younger female relative". |
| Hungarian | The word "női" comes from the Proto-Uralic word *ńaj "woman". |
| Icelandic | The word "kvenkyns" is derived from the Old Norse word "kvenna", meaning "woman", which is related to the Old English word "cwen", meaning "queen". |
| Igbo | "Nwanyi" also refers to a woman's husband's lineage and is often used as a term of respect for all women, even those unrelated. |
| Indonesian | The Indonesian word "Perempuan" for "female" also means "woman" and was derived from the Proto-Austronesian word "bĕbāhine" meaning "to give birth". |
| Irish | "Baineann" comes from the Old Irish word "ben", which means "woman" or "wife". |
| Italian | It is derived from the Latin word "femina", which also meant "wife". |
| Japanese | The character 女 in 女性 was once used as a pictograph representing women. |
| Kannada | The word "ಹೆಣ್ಣು" (hennu) can also mean "a woman who is married" in Kannada. |
| Kazakh | The word "әйел" in Kazakh can also refer to a woman of high social standing or a wife. |
| Khmer | "ស្រី" also means "auspicious" and is often used in the context of traditional Khmer ceremonies and rituals. |
| Korean | The word "여자" (yeoja) can also refer to a wife or a mistress, depending on the context. |
| Kurdish | The Kurdish word "mê" not only means "female", but also refers to "mother", "source" or "origin" |
| Kyrgyz | The word "аял" in Kyrgyz can also refer to a woman's spouse or a married couple. |
| Lao | ເພດຍິງ in Lao is cognate with 'หญิง' in Thai and 'หญิง' in Khmer, all deriving from the Proto-Tai word *ʔpʰajŋ, meaning 'female'. |
| Latin | Feminam derives from 'femina', meaning 'woman', ultimately from the root 'fe', meaning 'to generate' or 'to bear'. |
| Latvian | The word "sieviete" is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʰénu- "woman," and is related to the Sanskrit word "jana" "woman, wife," and the Greek word "gunē" "woman, wife" |
| Lithuanian | The word "Moteris" in Lithuanian is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *méǵʰ₂tēr, meaning "mother". |
| Luxembourgish | "Weiblech" in Luxembourgish, derived from the Latin "femina", can also refer to feminine qualities, female animals, or female counterparts of objects or concepts. |
| Macedonian | The word 'женски' can also mean 'feminine' or 'womanly', and is derived from the Proto-Slavic word *ženъskъ, meaning 'woman'. |
| Malagasy | The word "vehivavy" in Malagasy also means "woman" or "wife". |
| Malay | The word 'perempuan' is a derivative of 'empu', a Sanskrit word that also means 'owner'. In some contexts, 'perempuan' can refer to both men and women in positions of power, such as rulers or nobility. |
| Malayalam | The word "പെൺ" (peṇ) has cognates in various Indo-Aryan languages, including Sanskrit "प्री" (prī), meaning "to love" or "to please". |
| Maltese | The form 'mara' is a borrowing from Sicilian 'mara' (woman, wife) and a reduction of a hypothetical form *'marata', ultimately from Latin 'mater' (mother). |
| Maori | The Maori word 'wahine' can also refer to a partner or mistress, and can be used as a term of endearment for a woman or a girl. |
| Marathi | मादी, originating from Sanskrit माता (mātā, "mother"), also refers to female animals or female counterparts. |
| Mongolian | "Эмэгтэй" (Mongolian for 'female') originates from Tibetan 'ma gtags' or 'ma dags' ('a woman'), which in turn derives from Sanskrit 'ma' (mother), referring to the female as a mother figure. |
| Nepali | The word "महिला" (female) is derived from the Sanskrit word "महिला" (great), and also has the alternate meaning of "queen". |
| Norwegian | Hunn, which stems from an Old Norse term, also refers to the name of an ogress or giantess in Scandinavian folktales. |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | The word "chachikazi" is also used to refer to "women's business" or "menstruation". |
| Pashto | ښځينه can also mean "of the opposite gender," and it is used for both animate and inanimate objects. |
| Persian | The word "زن" can also mean "life" or "soul" in Persian. |
| Polish | The Polish word "płeć żeńska" literally means "gender feminine" and is also used figuratively to refer to the female sex. |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | The word "fêmea" in Portuguese also means "female animal", "female plant" or "female part of a plant" |
| Punjabi | The word "ਰਤ" in Punjabi can also mean "pearl" or "gem". |
| Romanian | The Romanian word "Femeie" originates from the Latin "femina", meaning "woman" or "female", and is cognate with words like "feminine" and "effeminate" in English. |
| Russian | The word "женский пол" literally means "female sex" in Russian, and is cognate with the English word "gender". |
| Samoan | Fafine can also be an honorific in Samoa, referring to a woman who is a leader or orator. |
| Scots Gaelic | The word "boireann" derives from Old Irish "boirfe" meaning "cowherd" or "milkmaid". |
| Serbian | The word "Женско" also means "feminine" or "womanly" in Serbian. |
| Sesotho | The word "e motshehadi" is made up of the prefixes "e" and "mo", meaning "one who is" and "of", respectively, combined with the noun "tshehadi". |
| Shona | Mukadzi, a Shona word for "female," can also mean a "wife" or an "adult woman". |
| Sindhi | The word “عورت” in Sindhi also means “womanly” and “feminine”. |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | In addition to its primary meaning as "female," the Sinhala word "ගැහැණු" can also mean "wife" or "woman of the house." |
| Slovak | The Slovak word "žena" is of Slavic origin and is related to words such as "ženích" (groom) and "život" (life). |
| Slovenian | The word 'samica' can also refer to the female of a particular animal species. |
| Somali | The Somali word for 'female' is 'dhadig' and it is the opposite of 'lab', meaning 'male'. |
| Spanish | The word "hembra" comes from the Latin "femina," which means "woman" or "wife. |
| Sundanese | The word bikangna comes from the Proto-Malayic word *bikna, which originally had a more general meaning of 'person,' and in some languages is used for 'male'. |
| Swahili | The word 'kike' is a Swahili word that means 'female'. |
| Swedish | "Kvinna" comes from the Old Norse "kona", meaning "wife" or "woman". |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The word "babae" in Tagalog also means "woman" or "lady", a more polite and respectful term for an adult female. |
| Tajik | The word "занон" originally meant "lady" or "mistress" in Persian, but later came to mean "woman" or "girl" in Tajik. |
| Tamil | The word "பெண்" (female) is also commonly used to denote "wife" and is derived from the Proto-Dravidian root "*pen" meaning "woman". |
| Telugu | The term "స్త్రీ" (female) in Telugu is also used to refer to the goddess Lakshmi in certain contexts. |
| Thai | The word "หญิง" also refers to a woman of noble birth or high rank. |
| Turkish | The word "kadın" is derived from the Old Turkic word "qatun," meaning "lady, queen, or ruler's wife." |
| Ukrainian | The word "самка" also refers to a female animal when used in a more scientific or zoological context. |
| Urdu | The word "عورت" also means "woman" in Turkish, derived from the Old Turkic word "ogur" meaning "womb". |
| Uzbek | The word "ayol" in Uzbek comes from the Old Turkic word "aial" meaning "wife". In some Uzbek dialects, it also means "mother". |
| Vietnamese | Giống cái (female) also means "the same type" or "similar" in Vietnamese. |
| Welsh | The Welsh word 'benyw' can also mean 'woman', 'lady' or 'wife' |
| Xhosa | The word "umntu obhinqileyo" ("female" in English) in Xhosa can also be used to refer to a woman who is married, or to a woman who is of childbearing age. |
| Yiddish | The Yiddish word "ווייַבלעך" may also refer to the Jewish dietary law separating male and female animals for milking. |
| Yoruba | The word "obinrin" originally meant "the one who begets children" in Yoruba, but it has since come to mean "female" in general. |
| Zulu | The Zulu word 'owesifazane' can be literally translated as 'the one who bears children' ('owesa' meaning 'to bear', 'ifazane' meaning 'child'). |
| English | The word "female" originates from the Latin word "femella", meaning "young woman" or "girl". |