Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

She

She

,
p
ron.
[
s
ing.
nom.
She
;
p
oss.
Her
. or
Hers
;
obj.
Her
;
pl.
nom.
They
;
p
oss.
Their
or
Theirs
;
obj.
Them
.]
[OE.
she
,
sche
,
scheo
,
scho
, AS.
seó
, fem. of the definite article, originally a demonstrative pronoun; cf. OS.
siu
, D.
zij
, G.
sie
, OHG.
siu
,
sī
,
si
, Icel.
sū
,
sjā
, Goth.
si
she,
sō
, fem. article, Russ.
siia
, fem., this, Gr. [GREEK], fem. article, Skr.
sā
,
syā
. The possessive
her
or
hers
, and the objective
her
, are from a different root. See
Her
.]
1.
This or that female; the woman understood or referred to; the animal of the female sex, or object personified as feminine, which was spoken of.
She
loved her children best in every wise.
Chaucer.
Then Sarah denied, . . . for
she
was afraid.
Gen. xviii. 15.
2.
A woman; a female; – used substantively.
[R.]
Lady, you are the cruelest
she
alive.
Shakespeare
☞ She is used in composition with nouns of common gender, for female, to denote an animal of the female sex; as, a she-bear; a she-cat.

Webster 1828 Edition

She

SHE

, pronoun personal of the feminine gender. [She is perhaps the Heb. a woman or wife. L. quoe.]
1. A pronoun which is a substitute for the name of a female, and of the feminine gender; the word which refers to a female mentioned in the preceding or following part of a sentence or discourse.
Then denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. Gen. 18.
2. She is sometimes used as a noun for waman or female, and in the plural; but in contempt or in ludicrous language.
Lady, you are the cruell'st she alive. Shak.
The shes of Italy shall not betray
My interest. Shak.
3. She is also used in composition for female, representing sex; as a she-bear; a she-cat.

Definition 2024

she

she

See also: Appendix:Variations of "she"

English

Pronoun

she ‎(third-person singular, feminine, nominative case, accusative and possessive her, possessive hers, reflexive herself)

  1. (personal) The female person or animal previously mentioned or implied.
    I asked Mary, but she said that she didn't know.
  2. (personal, sometimes affectionate) A ship.
    She could do forty knots in good weather.
    She is a beautiful boat, isn't she?
  3. (personal, affectionate) Another machine (besides a ship), such as a car.
    She only gets thirty miles to the gallon on the highway, but she's durable.
  4. (personal) He/she (used in a work, along with or in place of he, as an indefinite pronoun).
    • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, 1990:
      Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen. For a child, it could be placing with trembling fingers the last block on a tower she has built, higher than any she has built so far; for a swimmer, it could be trying to beat his own record; for a violinist, mastering an intricate musical passage.

Translations

See also

Determiner

she

  1. (African American Vernacular) Synonym of her

Noun

she ‎(plural shes)

  1. A female.
    Pat is definitely a she.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare:
      And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare.
    • William Thackeray, Vanity Fair
      […] he came home to find […] honest Swartz in her favourite amber-coloured satin, with turquoise bracelets, countless rings, flowers, feathers, and all sorts of tags and gimcracks, about as elegantly decorated as a she chimney-sweep on May-day.
    • 2000, Sue V. Rosser, Building inclusive science volume 28, issues 1-2, page 189:
      A world where the hes are so much more common than the shes can hardly be seen as a welcoming place for women.

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: but · all · him · #32: she · they · my · were

Anagrams

Albanian

Etymology

A derivative of shi.

Noun

she m (indefinite plural she, definite singular sheu, definite plural shetë)

  1. undrying rivulet
Related terms

Mandarin

Romanization

she

  1. Nonstandard spelling of shē.
  2. Nonstandard spelling of shé.
  3. Nonstandard spelling of shě.
  4. Nonstandard spelling of shè.

Usage notes

  • English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Unami

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ʃɛ]

Adverb

shè

  1. here

Etymology

From Middle English sche, hye ‎(“she”), from earlier scho, hyo, ȝho ‎(“she”), a phonetic development of Old English hēo, hīo ‎(“she”), from Proto-Germanic *hijō f ‎(“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- ‎(“this, here”). Cognate with English dialectal hoo ‎(“she”), Scots scho, shu ‎(“she”), Saterland Frisian jo, ju ‎(“she”), West Frisian hja ‎(“she”), North Frisian jü ‎(“she”), Danish hun ‎(“she”), Swedish hon ‎(“she”). More at he.

Despite the similarity in appearance, the Old English feminine demonstrative sēo ‎(“that”) is probably not the source of Middle English forms in sch-. Rather, the sch- developed out of a change in stress upon hío resulting in hió, spelt ȝho (ȝh = hȝ, compare wh = hw, lh = hl, etc.), and the h was palatalised into the sh sound. Similar alteration can be seen the name Shetland, from Old Norse Hjaltland; ȝho is the immediate parent form of Middle English scho and sche.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ʃiː/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ʃi/
  • Rhymes: -iː

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