Definitions

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

  • noun The presence of male secondary sexual characteristics in a female.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Hermaphrodism in which the individual is a female but has certain genital organs resembling those of the male.

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

  • noun the development of male secondary sexual characteristics in a female (or prematurely in a young boy)

Etymologies

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Examples

  • For reasons I shall explain on page 106, such adrenal tumors may bring on sexual precocity in children, or a marked increase in masculine characteristics in women, the latter condition being known as virilism ( "man" L).

    The Human Brain Asimov, Isaac 1963

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