fe′male•ness, n. syn: female, feminine, effeminate describe women and girls or whatever is culturally attributed to them. female classifies individuals on the basis of their genetic makeup or their ability to produce offspring in sexual reproduction. Anatomically the general female characteristic of human sexual dimorphism is the human female reproductive system, which includes the ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, vagina, and vulva. Female is a biological term used to describe the sex of an organism that produces eggs or ovum, while woman is a gender identity that encompasses a range of social, cultural, and personal characteristics. While all women are female, not all females identify as women. In the 14th century, female appeared in English with such spellings as femel, femelle, and female. The word comes from the Latin femella, meaning young woman, girl, which in turn is based on femina, meaning woman. The words woman, girl, and female are often used in distorted and inappropriate ways. Learn why female should only be used as an adjective, why underage women don't exist, and why adults are women and not girls. FEMALE definition: 1. belonging or relating to women or girls: 2. belonging or relating to the sex that can give…. Learn more. When looking at seed plants, the plants that only produce seed are called female, those that only produce pollen are called male. The majority of seed plants produce both, and are called hermaphrodite. An organism's sex is female if it produces the ovum, the type of gamete that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. At the most fundamental level, “male” and “female” refer to two different reproductive roles defined by the type of sex cell, or gamete, an organism produces. Males produce small gametes (sperm), and females produce large gametes (eggs). Characteristics of organisms with a female sex vary between different species, having different female reproductive systems, with some species showing characteristics secondary to the reproductive system, as with mammary glands in mammals.