male
/meɪl/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.89 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Belonging to the sex which typically produces sperm, or to the gender which is typically associated with it.
adj
Tending to lead to or regulate the development of sexual characteristics typical of this sex.
adj
Masculine; of the masculine grammatical gender.
adj
Having the F factor; able to impart DNA into another bacterium which does not have the F factor (a female).
adj
Of instruments, tools, or connectors: designed to fit into or penetrate a female counterpart, as in a connector, pipe fitting or laboratory glassware.
Example Sentences
- "male writers"
- "the leading male and female singers"
- "a male bird feeding a seed to a female"
- "in bee colonies, all drones are male"
- "intersex male patients"
- "We got the hang of [caring for a baby], Kate and I, with some quiet, surprising guidance from a gentle male nurse whose touching lack of intrusion was so instinctive as to seem part of the pattern."
Etymology
Etymology tree Latin mās Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Proto-Italic *-kelos Latin -culus Latin masculus Vulgar Latin masclus Old French maslebor. Middle English male English male From Middle English male, borrowed from Old French malle, masle (Modern French mâle), from Latin masculus (“masculine, a male”), diminutive of mās (“male, masculine”). Doublet of macho. Displaced native Old English wǣpned (“male”, literally “weaponed”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /meɪl/
- British English: /meɪl/
Inflected Forms
maler (comparative)
more male (comparative)
malest (superlative)
most male (superlative)
males (plural)