What does womanizing mean?
Womanizing is the present-participle and gerund form of the verb womanize. It describes engaging in sexual relations with multiple women, particularly when this forms a repeated pattern of promiscuity or infidelity. The word is chiefly used in a critical or moralizing context: it often implies that one partner is being disloyal or that women are being treated as objects. It can appear as an accusation in political, legal, and personal discourse, although such usage may itself carry sexist assumptions. Womanizing is also used attributively, as in “womanizing behavior.” The related noun womanizer identifies a person alleged to engage in this conduct, while womanising is the usual British spelling. Although the word is sometimes applied more loosely to persistent sexual pursuit, its standard meaning concerns repeated sexual relationships with multiple women rather than casual flirtation alone.
verbTo engage in sexual relations with multiple women, especially as a repeated pattern of promiscuity or infidelity.
- Engaging in sexual relations with multiple women, especially as a repeated pattern of promiscuity or infidelity.
"The novel condemns the politician's womanizing while portraying the women he exploited with painful clarity."
"He was accused of womanizing his way through the local music scene, although the allegation was never proved."
"Her novel portrays the damaging effects of womanizing without excusing the behavior."
Womanizing is unusually explicit: where words such as “promiscuous” can describe either sex, womanizing specifically names repeated sexual conduct involving multiple women.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of womanizing
Womanizing is an English formation from woman, the verbal suffix -ize, and the present-participle ending -ing. Woman derives from Old English wifman, formed from wif, meaning “woman,” and man, meaning “person,” while -ize entered English through French and Latin from Greek -izein, meaning “to make” or “to cause.” Closely related English words include womanhood, womanly, and womankind.
Related word forms
How womanizing is actually used
The term is usually derogatory and carries implications of disloyalty, deception, or moral irresponsibility. It is especially associated with North American usage; womanising is a common British spelling variant.
Easily confused with womanizing
A womanizer is a person who engages in such relationships, whereas womanizing names the activity itself.