Female

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Θῆλυς (Strong'S #2338 — Adjective — thelus — thay'-loos )

an adjective (from thele, "a breast"), is used in the form thelu (grammatically neuter) as a noun, "female," in  Matthew 19:4;  Mark 10:6;  Galatians 3:28; in the feminine form theleia, in  Romans 1:26 , "women;"  Romans 1:27 "woman." See Woman.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) An individual of the sex which conceives and brings forth young, or (in a wider sense) which has an ovary and produces ova.

(2): ( n.) A plant which produces only that kind of reproductive organs which are capable of developing into fruit after impregnation or fertilization; a pistillate plant.

(3): ( a.) Belonging to the sex which conceives and gives birth to young, or (in a wider sense) which produces ova; not male.

(4): ( a.) Belonging to an individual of the female sex; characteristic of woman; feminine; as, female tenderness.

(5): ( a.) Having pistils and no stamens; pistillate; or, in cryptogamous plants, capable of receiving fertilization.

King James Dictionary

FE'MALE, n. L. femella. See Feminine.

1. Among animals, one of that sex which conceives and brings forth young. 2. Among plants, that which produces fruit that which bears the pistil and receives the pollen of the male flowers.

FE'MALE, a.

1. Noting the sex which produces young not male as a female bee. 2. Pertaining to females as a female hand or heart female tenderness.

To the generous decision of a female mind, we owe the discovery of America.

3. Feminine soft delicate weak.

Female rhymes, double rhymes, so called from the French, in which language they end in e feminine.

Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology

See Human Sexuality

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

fē´māl  : Two Hebrew words are thus translated:

(1) נקבה , neḳēbhāh , which is merely a physiological description of the sexual characteristic (from נקב , nāḳabh , "to perforate"), and which corresponds to זכר , zākhār , "male" (see under the word).

(2) אשּה , 'ishshāh , with the irregular plural נשׁים , nāshı̄m (only  Genesis 7:2 , in all other places "wife," "woman"), the feminine form of אישׁ , 'ı̄sh , "man."

The Greek word is θῆλυς , thḗlus , literally, "the nursing one," "the one giving suck" (from θηλάζω , thēlázō , "to suckle").

Israelitic law seems frequently guilty of unjust partiality in favor of the male sex, but we have to consider that most of these legal and religious disabilities of women can be explained from the social conditions prevailing at the time of legislation. They are therefore found also in contemporaneous Gentile religions. Though traces of this prejudice against the weaker sex are found in the New Testament, the religious discrimination between the sexes has practically ceased, as is evident from  Galatians 3:28 : "There can be no male and female; for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus"; compare also   1 Peter 3:7 .

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

ECCLESIASTIC. (For monographs, see Volbeding, Index, p. 164.) (See Ministry); (See Deaconess); (See Agapetae).