womance

English

Etymology

Blend of woman +‎ romance.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Noun

womance (countable and uncountable, plural womances)

1. (informal) A close but nonsexual relationship between women.
   • 2012, Sarah Mayberry, Within Reach, Harlequin, published 2012, →ISBN, page 12:

     “We're having an intense moment of womance here, do you mind?” Billie said.

   • 2013, Marcia Clark, “Chapter 3”, in Inherit the Dead, Touchstone, →ISBN, page 42:

     “Angel goes through BFFs the way Limbaugh goes through oxy. Always has. I give their little ‘womance’ six months tops before Angel gets tired of her.”

   • 2013 July 27, Deborah Ross, “At last, a film about proper women who aren’t just drippily searching for love”, in The Spectator:

     She shares an apartment with her best friend Sophie (Mickey Sumner, daughter of Sting and Trudie Styler; she is terrific), but then Sophie dumps her for a rich boyfriend, and although the two have quite a womance going — ‘We are the same person, but with different hair,’ they tell everybody — we are never quite sure if Sophie is true or not.

Verb

womance (third-person singular simple present womances, present participle womancing, simple past and past participle womanced)

1. To be in a womantic relationship.

Synonyms

• girl crush
• sismance

Coordinate terms

• bromance
• man crush

Derived terms

• womantic

See also

• queerplatonic