Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell female

What it means: Of the sex that can produce young or lay eggs.

In a sentence: The female cat has a shiny fur coat. ▶

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as femail or femal.

Same family: feminine, woman, girl, male, gender. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Female comes from Old French ‘femelle’, from Latin ‘femella’, a diminutive of ‘femina’ meaning ‘woman’. Interestingly, although it looks like it contains the word ‘male’, historically it is not built from ‘male’ at all—they just ended up looking similar over time.

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

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Spelling.School is a spaced-repetition spelling practice: ten minutes a day, every word spoken aloud, every miss explained, and every word coming back just before you would forget it. Try five words without signing up.