Meanings
plural malenesses
- countableuncountableThe characteristic, state or condition of being male.
1 more example
They had always lived over the pub with its buzz of voices. Bar talk. When she was fifteen she had come home one night from the school concert just about closing time. Men were coming out on to the street and she could hear her father's voice calling time. She had heard this scene every night from upstairs and been afraid of it - the loud voices, the shouting, the maleness of it.
1997, Bernard MacLaverty, 'Grace Notes' (novel), (Chapter 1, at page 11 in the 1998 Vintage paperback edition)Synonyms: masculineness, masculinity
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe characteristic, state or condition of being male.
More synonyms by meaning
nounthe properties characteristic of the male sex
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinmasculus
- Vulgar Latinmasclus
- Old Frenchmasle
- Middle Englishmale
- Englishmale
- Englishmaleness
Translations
German Männlichkeit
- Männlichkeitcharacteristic, state or condition of being male
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
maleness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maleness
“maleness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maleness. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “maleness,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maleness.
Source: maleness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.