tomboyish

as in masculine
having qualities or traits that are traditionally considered inappropriate for a girl or woman her father thought that ice hockey was a little too tomboyish for her, but her mother and older brother encouraged her to take it up

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for tomboyish
Adjective
  • The show anticipated what can happen when masculine entitlement and artificial intelligence meet.
    Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 16 Apr. 2025
  • Beyond the shorts and baggy jacket, Hailey Bieber chose a pair of flat, masculine loafers matched with white high socks, emulating the schoolgirl aesthetic.
    Isabel Serra, Glamour, 15 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • The new girl’s unladylike bravado ensures that she will be asked to board with the Brown girl.
    Chris Bohjalian, Washington Post, 17 Aug. 2023
  • In fact, one of the choicest bites of the entire meal was an unladylike gnaw of the generous gristle on a bone followed by a spoonful of marrow-thickened soup, bobbing with cubes of cleansing daikon.
    Jiayang Fan, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2022
Adjective
  • Dior’s collection referenced the H-line created by its founder Christian Dior for Fall-Winter 1954-1955 – a controversial silhouette at the time as its flattened shape appeared, for some, unfeminine.
    Alice Pfeiffer, CNN, 28 Jan. 2025
  • The intention behind this final postcard may have been, yet again, to paint the fight for suffrage as absurd, to make suffragists seem like willful, unfeminine animals.
    Natalie Kinkade, JSTOR Daily, 25 Sep. 2024
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Tomboyish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tomboyish. Accessed 21 Apr. 2025.

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