Femme

/fɛm/ · noun

Meaning

A woman; a wife; (now chiefly Canada, US) a young woman or girl..

Definitions by Sense

1. A woman; a wife; (now chiefly Canada, US) a young woman or girl.
2. (LGBTQ) A lesbian or other queer woman whose appearance, identity etc. is seen as feminine as opposed to butch.
3. (LGBTQ, less common) A person whose gender is feminine-leaning, such as a feminine non-binary person.
4. (chiefly Canada, US, journalism, entertainment) Pertaining to a femme; feminine, female.
5. (chiefly derogatory) Effeminate (of a man).
6. Characteristic of a feminine lesbian or queer woman.

Example Sentences

Then I turned to him and said, "O my lord, I have that to propose to thee wherein thou must not cross me; and this it is that, when we reach Baghdad, my native city, I offer thee my life as thy handmaiden in holy matrimony, and thou shalt be to me baron and I will be femme to thee."

Theodore J. Flicker and George Kirgo have penned a good script in which Elvis is played off against four femmes […].

Near-synonym: lipstick lesbian (sometimes differentiated)

Some of the most political dykes in town had already converted, tossing out their Levi's and Birkenstocks in favor of poodle skirts and heels. It was no longer a question of butch vs. femme, liberations vs. oppression. Clothes did not unmake the woman; clothes were just clothes.

Monique whispered something to a butch sitting near her. The butch crossed the room and approached our table. “Hey,” she called to me. I didn't look up. “Hey, femme, you wanna dance with a real butch?”

Given the myth that lesbian femmes will eventually leave their butches for men, there is an understandable unwillingness to acknowledge bisexual femmes, who really might do it — as indeed they have every right to.

I love butches, though. I dated a femme once. That was wrong on so many levels.

The same is true of Goddess Spirituality spaces which are predicated on Radical Feminist rhetorics about Nature and the embodied experience – even those spaces which are open to trans women and nonbinary femmes may still fall back on language about the womb …

Synonyms for femme

Antonyms for femme

Related Words

Word Forms

• femmes
• more femme
• most femme

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

Practice and Learn More

Frequently Asked Questions