Manhood

How to spell manhood

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce manhood

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does manhood mean?

1. nounThe state or period of being an adult male, as opposed to boyhood.
2. nounThe qualities traditionally associated with being a man, such as courage, strength, and maturity.

Manhood in a sentence

• The boy reached manhood during the years his father was away.

• He felt the insult was a challenge to his manhood.

• Old letters traced his slow passage from boyhood into manhood.

• The novel questions what true manhood really means in modern life.

Where does manhood come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English compound built from 'man', which in Old English (mann) originally meant simply 'a human being' regardless of sex, and the suffix '-hood', which descends from the Old English noun 'had' meaning a state, condition, or rank. So at root the word literally names the condition of being a man, much as 'childhood' names the condition of being a child and 'priesthood' the rank of being a priest. The form is recorded from the early medieval period and narrowed over time as 'man' itself came to mean specifically an adult male. From the sense of simply being an adult male it broadened to cover the qualities thought to belong to men, such as courage and maturity, and later acquired its polite euphemistic use. Because both halves are plain English roots, the spelling holds no foreign surprises: it is just 'man' joined to the familiar '-hood'.

How the word is built

• man (adult male)
• -hood (state, condition, or rank)