different between women vs womyn

English

Alternative forms

• See woman

Etymology

From Middle English wimmen, from Old English w?fmenn (“women”), from w?f (“female”) + menn (“men, persons, human beings”), equivalent to wife +? men. Spelling (with o) influenced by the singular; see woman for more.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US, Canada) IPA^(key): /?w?m?n/, /?w?m?n/, /?w?m?n/
  • Rhymes: -?m?n
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /?w?m?n/, /?w?m?n/
  • Rhymes: -?m?n
• Hyphenation: wom?en
• Homophone: woman (some dialects, common in New Zealand and South Africa)

Noun

women

1. plural of woman

   Three women went for a walk.

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:women.

Related terms

• women's lib
• womenfolk

Noun

women

1. Misspelling of woman.

Anagrams

• Mowen, menow

Middle English

Noun

women pl

1. Alternative form of wommen

English

Alternative forms

• See woman

Etymology

From woman and women; respelled so as not to contain the word man/men. Compare myn.

Noun

womyn (plural womyn or wymyn)

1. (very rare, nonstandard) Feminist spelling of woman
   • 1980, Susan J Wolfe, Julia Penelope, The coming out stories

     Summoning all my courage, I touched and kissed a womyn for the first time. I cannot describe what I felt at that moment.

   • 2004, Misty Marie, I Too was a Child...

     I dug with my bare hands through the bullshit where beneath I discovered a womyn. She was an incredibly angry womyn, but a womyn nonetheless.

2. (very rare, nonstandard) Feminist spelling of women
   • 1995, Sol Steinmetz, "Womyn: The Evidence," American Speech, vol. 70, no. 4, p. 430,

     Since the publication of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary (RHWCD) in the spring of 1991, no single dictionary entry has been the subject of more discussion, criticism, and controversy than the entry womyn (an alternative spelling of women).

Derived terms