Tomgirl
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A boy who behaves in a typically girlish manner.
"This tactic didn't work, so several weeks later, in a variation on a theme, I reported to two girls on the playground "I'm a tomgirl," calculating that if tomboys exist, tomgirls must also, and I must be one. That didn't work either, […]"
- 2 Synonym of tomboy (“girl who behaves in a typically boyish manner”).
"Homosexual stirrings in children before puberty are very difficult to evaluate; most small boys with signs of effeminacy probably do not become homosexuals as adults and most tomgirls become heterosexual."
Synonyms
All synonymsAntonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"This tactic didn't work, so several weeks later, in a variation on a theme, I reported to two girls on the playground "I'm a tomgirl," calculating that if tomboys exist, tomgirls must also, and I must be one. That didn't work either, […]"
Etymology
From tom + girl. The “girlish boy” sense was formed as an antonym of tomboy; the “boyish girl” sense is an alteration of tomboy to reinforce that the referent is a girl.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.