-gynous

The combining form -gynous is used like a suffix to mean “of women” or “of females.” It is very occasionally used in scientific terms, especially in botany.

In terms from botany, -gynous specifically means “having pistils,” the seed-bearing female organ of a flower.

The form -gynous comes from Greek -gynos, roughly meaning “female.”

What are variants of -gynous?

While -gynous doesn’t have any variants, it is related to other combining forms: gyn- , -gyne, gynec-, gyneco-, gyno-, and and -gyny. Want to know more? Check out our Words that Use articles for each form.

One example of a word you may have encountered that features the form -gynous is androgynous, “neither clearly masculine nor clearly feminine in appearance.” Androgynous comes from Greek andrógynos, meaning “hermaphrodite,” which uses the equivalent form of -gynous.

The andro- part of the word means “male,” from Greek anḗr, while the form -gynous means “of females.” Androgynous literally means roughly “like a male and a female.”

What are some words that use the combining form -gynous?

• acrogynous
• anacrogynous
• epigynous
• hypogynous
• perigynous (using the equivalent form of -gynous in Latin)
• polygynous (using the equivalent form of -gynous in Greek)

What are some other forms that -gynous may be commonly confused with?

• -genous
• -geny

The combining form poly- means “many.” With this in mind, what does the botanical term polygynous mean?