From Middle English womanly, wommanly, wommanlich, wummonlich, wommanlych, equivalent to woman + -ly.

• IPA: /ˈwʊmənli/

womanly (comparative womanlier, superlative womanliest)

1. Considered typical of, stereotypical of, or appropriate to women; feminine.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC ↗:

     I know that the sound of it moved me more even than her words, it was so very human - so very womanly.

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC ↗, page 149:

     "What I mean, a woman who doesn't go in for booze and sport and cigarettes. Man gets sick of these tough flappers. Give me a womanly woman every time. As I said before, I could see at a glance that you were a thoroughly womanly woman."

2. (rare) Female.

• masculine, male, manly

• French: féminin
• German: weiblich, fraulich
• Italian: femminile, femmineo, muliebre, donnesco, femminino
• Portuguese: feminino
• Russian: же́нственный
• Spanish: femenino, mujeril, femenil, femíneo, feminoide, amujerado, adamado, ahembrado, afeminado

womanly

1. In the manner of a woman.