Virile
//ˈvɪɹ.əl// adj
adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Adjective
- 1 Manly; having characteristics associated with being male, such as strength; exhibiting masculine traits to an exaggerated degree such as strength, forcefulness or vigor.
- 2 Possessing high sexual drive and capacity for sexual intercourse.
- 3 Pertaining to a grammatical gender used in plurals of some Slavic languages, corresponding to the personal masculine animate nouns.
Adjective
- 1 characteristic of a man wordnet
- 2 (of a male) capable of copulation wordnet
- 3 characterized by energy and vigor wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"On an uneventful 6th of November of 2021, I was drinking my iced green tea at the cafe. I had to line up for it; ahead of me was a handsome man in a dark jacket. A chunky dark man with a shaven head came in. Outside, through the window, I could see a virile man in white with big pectorals go to and from the nearby bank. Two girly men were sitting at a table beyond mine. The Westerners were really cynical, I noticed."
Etymology
From Middle French viril, from Latin virīlis, from vir (“man”, “male human”) + -īlis (suffix forming adjectives from nouns).
Related phrases
More for "virile"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.