Wordwyrt

woman

/ˈwʊmən/WUU-muhn
/ˈwʊmən/WUU-muhn

Meaningwife-person

Common meaning: an adult female person

Journey through time

  1. Old Englishwīfman‘woman’source
  2. Old Englishwimmansource
  3. Middle Englishwommansource
  4. Englishwoman‘an adult female person’ · today

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
  • No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
  • US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
  • No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Built on Old English wīf + man ‘woman + person’.

Did you know: our wording, based on Skeat, Etymological Dictionary (1898), entry WOMAN, p. 716 · dictionary scan

Roots

Building blocks are an automatic split · open in app