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Meaning of Femme | Babel Free

Noun CEFR C2 Specialized
fɛm

Definitions

  1. A woman, a wife; (now chiefly Canada, US) a young woman or girl.
  2. A lesbian or other queer woman whose appearance, identity etc. is seen as feminine as opposed to butch.
  3. A person whose gender is feminine-leaning, such as a feminine non-binary person.

Equivalents

العربية إمرأة
Français femme

Examples

“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 […].”
“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 …”
“[…] there is no story of Black pain deeper than that of Black fat women and femmes. […] ¹ Gender expansive for women, femmes, and nonbinary folks.”
“Jordan-Zachery offers two dominant scripts that are often written onto Black women's, femmes', and girls' bodies: The Ass and Strong Black Woman scripts.”
“[...] and any person who might partake in feminine expression (cis and trans women and men, nonbinary femmes...).”

CEFR level

C2
Mastery
This word is part of the CEFR C2 vocabulary — mastery level.
See all C2 English words →

See also

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