an adult human female
A woman is like a teabag – only in hot water do you realize how strong she is — Nancy Reagan
(usu used in combinations) a woman belonging to a usu specified category, e.g. by birth, residence, membership, or occupation
a councilwoman
an Englishwoman
a female employee or servant
a mistress, girlfriend, or wife
women as a whole; womankind
I expect that Woman will be the last thing civilised by Man — George Meredith
a wife or female sexual partner
a maid or other domestic help
woman of the streets
euphem, dated a prostitute
woman to woman
frankly, as one woman to another
womanless adj
womanlike adj
Old English wīfman, from wīf woman, wife + man1. The oldest English words for man and woman were wer (related to virile) and wīf (the source of wife). Woman derives from wīfman, a compound of wīf and man (in the sense ‘human being’) first recorded in the 9th cent.; the male equivalent was wǣpman, from wǣpen ‘weapon’ (probably referring to the penis) and man. As man was increasingly applied to males only, by the 13th cent. the contrasting pair man/woman was generally established