Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The state or time of being an adult male human.
  • noun The composite of qualities, such as courage, determination, and vigor, often thought to be appropriate to a man.
  • noun Adult males considered as a group; men.
  • noun The state of being human.
  • noun The male penis or genitals.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being man, or of belonging to the human race, as distinguished from higher or lower orders of existence.
  • noun The state of being a man, as distinguished from a woman or a boy; virility.
  • noun The quality of being a man or manly; manliness; possession of masculine qualities, as courage, fortitude, resolution, honor, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The state of being man as a human being, or man as distinguished from a child or a woman.
  • noun Manly quality; virility; courage; bravery; resolution.
  • noun The genitalia of a male human.
  • noun The condition of being a human being.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state of being man as a human being.
  • noun State of being a man as distinguished from a child or a woman.
  • noun The qualities ascribed to manliness; courage; bravery; resolve.
  • noun The male genitalia.
  • noun Men, considered as a group.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the status of being a man
  • noun the quality of being human
  • noun the state of being a man; manly qualities

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English manhode, also manhede, from man + -hede ("-head"), equivalent to man +‎ -hood. Cognate with Middle Low German manheit ("manhood"), German Mannheit ("manhood"). More at man, -head, -hood.

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Examples

  • It's unclear exactly what "men" entails, and it seems like everyone's imitating someone else, and not even the biological men have worked out what their manhood is all about.

    Kate Fridkis: Not Every Man Wants to Have Sex With Every Woman Kate Fridkis 2010

  • Like most very young men Copplestone on arriving at what he called manhood (by which he meant the age of twenty-one years), had drawn up for himself a code of ethics, wherein he had mentally scheduled certain things to be done and certain things not to be done.

    Scarhaven Keep 1899

  • It seems to me that what you term your manhood was composed largely of pride, conceit, ignorance of yourself, and inexperience of the world.

    A Knight of the Nineteenth Century Edward Payson Roe 1863

  • For Mr. McAllister one measure of manhood is the willingness to face an enemy and mete out punishment without flinching.

    Testosterone Put to the Test Dave Shiflett 2010

  • As I have read the comments negatively addressing HuntingMom3, I must say I feel sorry for you guys who understand so little of what true manhood is that you would feel you need to defend yourselves against a Mother with valid concerns.

    The 2010 SHOT Show Booth Babe Roundup 2010

  • The great world which I knew in my boyhood and early manhood is gone.

    Page 2 2010

  • And now, in manhood, my brother commits a lurid act, an act repulsive to me, one capable of arousing emotions of anger, of bitterness, of hatred.

    The Kempton-Wace Letters 2010

  • "And the two boys lost their best friend and an example of what manhood is really about."

    Four adults still in hospital after Montgomery, Md., bus crash Dan Morse 2010

  • Needless to say, viewers were left to ponder if Spitzer's manhood is large enough to accommodate a future appearance on "Unfinished Business" starring Ms Dupré.

    Parker Spitzer: no snap or crackle, and not pop Dan Kennedy 2010

  • As I have read the comments negatively addressing HuntingMom3, I must say I feel sorry for you guys who understand so little of what true manhood is that you would feel you need to defend yourselves against a Mother with valid concerns.

    The 2010 SHOT Show Booth Babe Roundup 2010

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