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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

girly.

Characteristic of a stereotypical girl, very effeminate, gentle; unmasculine.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈɡɝli/General-American/ˈɡɜːli/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡøːli/New-Zealand, Wales/ˈɡɪɾle/Scotland

  1. Characteristic of a stereotypical girl, very effeminate, gentle; unmasculine.

  2. Of, or pertaining to, a young, attractive woman; especially one who is scantily clad.

    slang
    a girly calendar

  3. Weak; wussy.

    slang
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *gaurā Proto-West Germanic *-ilā Proto-West Germanic *gurilā Old English *gyrele? Middle English girle English girl Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English girly From girl + -y (adjectival sufix).

noun/ˈɡɝli/General-American/ˈɡɜːli/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡøːli/New-Zealand, Wales/ˈɡɪɾle/Scotland

  1. A girl.

    childish · colloquial
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *gaurā Proto-West Germanic *-ilā Proto-West Germanic *gurilā Old English *gyrele? Middle English girle English girl Proto-Germanic *-j-, *-ij- Proto-West Germanic *-i, *-ī Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English girly From girl + -y (diminutive suffix).

adv/ˈɡɝli/General-American/ˈɡɜːli/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡøːli/New-Zealand, Wales/ˈɡɪɾle/Scotland

  1. In the manner of a girl.

    rare
Where this word comes from

From girl + -ly (adverbial suffix), after the adjective.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.