Female or feminine; male or masculine?

We use female and male to refer to the sex of humans and animals:

• Female lions hunt for food more than male lions.
• In some industries such as the clothing industry, only females are employed.

We use feminine and masculine when we refer to the qualities that we consider to be typical of women or men:

• The bedroom was furnished in a very feminine style.
• She had a very masculine voice.

We also use masculine and feminine to talk about features of languages:

• ‘He’ is the masculine form of the third person singular; ‘she’ is the feminine form.