婦ふ女じょ

ふ

じょ

Common wordJLPTN1Freq.FrequencyTop 100,000

Meanings

noun

woman; womankind

A somewhat formal or literary term for women collectively; in everyday speech 女性 is more common.

婦ふ女じょの地ち位い向こう上じょうは重じゅう要ような課か題だいだ。
Improving the status of women is an important issue.
その施し設せつは婦ふ女じょの保ほ護ごを目もく的てきとしている。
The facility aims to protect women.

See all 4 example sentences ›

Kanji

婦lady, woman, wife
女woman, female

Related words

女じょ性せいN4
女性 is the standard, everyday word for a woman, while 婦女 is a formal, literary term used mainly in legal or classical writing to refer to women collectively.
婦ふ人じんN3
婦人 is another formal term for women, still seen in compounds like 婦人服, whereas 婦女 is rarer and even more literary.

Opposites

男だん子しN3
男子 refers to males, forming the natural opposite of 婦女, which refers to females collectively.

Counted with

人にん
婦女 is counted with 人 when referring to a number of women, as with people generally.

Word family

婦ふ女じょ子し
women and children · woman; grown woman; wife
婦ふ女じょ暴ぼう行こう
sexual assault (of a woman); rape

Etymology

Compound of 婦 (woman, lady) and 女 (woman). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the spelling is conventionally associated with the meaning 'women collectively'.