virile

CEFRC1

/ˈvɪɹ.əl/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Having strength, energy, or traditionally male qualities.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Pertaining to a grammatical gender used in plurals of some Slavic languages, corresponding to the personal masculine animate nouns.

Examples

  • He was a young and virile man who enjoyed many difficult sports.

  • Virile is an adjective that describes a man who is strong and brave.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1

Also pronounced

  • /ˈvɪɹˌaɪl/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Possessing high sexual drive and capacity for sexual intercourse.

  2. Manly; having characteristics associated with being male, such as strength; exhibiting masculine traits to an exaggerated degree such as strength, forcefulness or vigor.

More examples

In context

  • The actor played the role of a virile young hero.

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The young athlete's blank and muscular physique attracted many admirers at the gym.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

From Middle French viril, from Latin virīlis, from vir (“man”, “male human”) + -īlis (suffix forming adjectives from nouns).