Feminist

How to spell feminist

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce feminist

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does feminist mean?

1. nounA person who supports the social, political, and economic equality of women with men.
2. adjectiveRelating to or supporting the equality of women with men.

Feminist in a sentence

• noun

  As a committed feminist, she campaigned for equal pay at the firm.

• adjective

  The magazine took a clearly feminist stance on workplace pay.

• noun

  The author described herself as a lifelong feminist in her memoir.

• adjective

  Her feminist writing challenged outdated assumptions about working mothers.

Where does feminist come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin femina, which simply meant 'woman', the same root that gives us 'feminine' and 'female'. In the nineteenth century French coined feministe to describe a supporter of women's rights, building on the French feminin and the suffix used for adherents of a movement. English borrowed it as 'feminist' in the 1890s, just as organised campaigns for women's suffrage and equality were gathering force, and it quickly settled into both adjective and noun use. The spelling stays close to the Latin femina, so the giveaway is the single 'm' and the 'i' before the 'n', not the tempting double letters people sometimes add. Its close cousin 'feminine' shares the same ancestor, which is a handy memory anchor for the femin- core.

How the word is built

• femin- (from Latin femina: woman)
• -ist (one who holds a belief or practises something)