Girl Meaning
/ˈɡɜːl/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA female child.
nounA woman, especially a young and often attractive woman.
Sentence Examples
That's because you're a girl.
This girl changed her look.
The people believed the girl was possessed by demons.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The young ____ played with dolls in the sunny backyard.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The young ____ was very excited to start her first day of kindergarten and meet all of her new classmates.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English gerle, girle, gyrle (“young person (boy or girl)”), perhaps from Old English *gyrele, from Proto-West Germanic *gurilā, from a zero-grade diminutive of *gaurā (“young child”) + *-ilā. Ultimately of unknown origin. Doublet of gal/gyal and gyaru. Cognates Cognate with Yola gurl (“child, girl”), German Gör, Göre (“brat, cheeky young child”), Low German Gör (“child”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
""My dear girl, what has he done?" said Mrs. Mallowe, sweetly. It is noticeable that ladies of a certain age call each other "dear girl," just as commissioners of twenty-eight years' standing address their equals in the Civil List as "my boy.""
— 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 10:
""What a pity you couldn't see it." "Isn't it?" I agreed. "Now do go away, there's a good girl.""
— 1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 14:
"'Now, girls,' continued Healey, 'you're very high-spirited and that's as it should be but I won't have you getting out of hand.[…]' […] Setting a spatted foot on the bench that ran down the middle of the changing-room with elegant distain, Adrian began to flip through a pile of Y-fronts and rugger shorts with his cane."
— 1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, pages 5–6:
"There isn't any guy going to steal my girl!"
— 1922, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Girl from Hollywood:
"I took my girl to the cinema to watch your American movies."
— 1996, Elizabeth Wong, Kimchee and Chitlins: A Serious Comedy about Getting Along, page 74:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The young ____ played with dolls in the sunny backyard.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The young ____ was very excited to start her first day of kindergarten and meet all of her new classmates.