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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

manly.

Having the characteristics of a man.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈmænli/
  1. Having the characteristics of a man.

  2. Having qualities viewed as befitting a man; masculine, manful, courageous, resolute, noble.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English manli, manlich, manly, from Old English *manlīċ (suggested by adverb manlīċe (“in a way befitting a person; nobly, stately”)), from Proto-West Germanic *mannlīk, from Proto-Germanic *mannlīkaz, equivalent to man + -ly (adjectival suffix). Cognate with Old High German manlīh (“manly”) (whence German männlich), Dutch mannelijk, Old Norse mannligr (“human”) (Danish mandlig, Swedish manlig).

adv/ˈmænli/
  1. In a way befitting a man.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English manli, manlich, manly, from Old English manlīċe, equivalent to man + -ly (adverbial suffix).

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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.