What does defeminised mean?
Defeminised means that something has been made less feminine, or has come to be perceived as less feminine. It may describe changes to a person's voice, body, clothing, behaviour, writing, or artistic style, as well as a deliberate aesthetic or social process. The word is especially common in discussions of hormone treatment, vocal change, literary characterisation, architecture, and design. Its implications depend strongly on context: describing bodily or vocal changes may be relatively neutral, while describing women as defeminised can imply a negative or sexist judgement. In cultural analysis, the term can indicate a conscious rejection of features conventionally coded as feminine. Defeminised is the past-participle and third-person form of defeminise, and it contrasts with feminised, which denotes the addition or strengthening of conventionally feminine features.
Made less feminine, or perceived as less feminine, in appearance, voice, behaviour, style, or cultural coding.
"Her training produced a noticeably deeper and more defeminised voice."
Often used with features such as voice, appearance, style, design, language, or narrative.
To remove or reduce qualities perceived as feminine from a person, object, form, or style.
"The designer defeminised the furniture by eliminating curves and ornamental details."
Defeminised describes a reversal: not simply the absence of feminine features, but their deliberate reduction or removal.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does defeminised come from?
Defeminised was formed in English from the prefix de-, meaning removal or reversal, and feminine, with the verbal ending -ise. Feminine in turn derives from Latin femina, meaning woman, and feminineus, meaning female or womanly. The modern form developed as part of the English vocabulary describing processes that reduce or reverse characteristics associated with femininity; it also has close semantic relatives such as masculinised, virilised, and androgenised.
Related word forms
How defeminised is actually used
The -ised spelling is standard in British English and is also used in American English, where -ized is more common. The term is often used in cultural criticism, design, voice training, and medical or hormonal contexts. Applied to women, it can sound judgmental or sexist, so the specific feature being described should generally be made clear.
Easily confused with defeminised
Feminised means made more recognisably feminine, whereas defeminised means made less recognisably feminine.