womenfolk

English

Alternative forms

• womenfolks

Etymology

Compound of women +‎ folk.

Noun

womenfolk pl (plural only)

1. Women collectively.
2. The adult female members of a community.
   • 1962, James Baldwin, Another Country, New York, N. Y.: The Dial Press, published 1963 January, page 25:

     “Ain’t she a splendid specimen of Southern womanhood?” Rufus asked. “Down yonder, they teach their womenfolks to serve.”

Synonyms

• ladyfolk (uncommon, chiefly dialectal and humorous)

Coordinate terms

• menfolk

Translations

women collectively

• Danish: kvindfolk n or n pl
• Esperanto: virinaro
• Finnish: naisväki (fi)
• German: Frauensleute (de) pl (obsolete), Weibervolk (de) n (obsolescent, often pejorative), Weibsleute (de) (colloquial, obsolescent)
• Hungarian: asszonynép (hu)
• Irish: bantracht f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kvinnfolk n or n pl, på spinnesiden

  Nynorsk: kvinnfolk n or n pl

• Portuguese: mulherio (pt) m, mulherada (pt) f
• Spanish: mujerío (es) m

adult female members of a community

• Finnish: naisväki (fi)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kvinnfolk n pl

  Nynorsk: kvinnfolk n pl