weibliches

Weibliches is the inflected form of the German adjective weiblich, meaning female or feminine. It is used to describe nouns in terms of biological sex, gender, or characteristics associated with women or the female principle. As an attributive adjective before neuter singular nouns, it appears in forms such as ein weibliches Tier (a female animal) or weibliches? No—the standard pattern is ein weibliches Tier, and das weibliche Merkmal is a form with a definite article where the ending differs. Predicatively, the adjective can be used without the ending: das Tier ist weiblich.

In practice, weibliches is most common with neuter singular nouns in contexts like biology, medicine, psychology, sociology, and everyday language when specifying sex or gender. Examples include weibliche Fortpflanzungsorgane, weibliches Gen, or weibliches Interesse. The corresponding feminine form for feminine nouns uses andere endings (die weibliche Form, die weibliche Person). The form weibliches specifically targets neuter nouns in the singular; other gender or plural contexts use different endings.

The noun form Das Weibliche can be used in a cultural or philosophical sense to refer to the feminine aspect as a concept, though this usage is less frequent and can carry stylistic nuance. Etymologically, weiblich derives from Weibe (woman) plus the suffix -lich; in modern usage, it remains a neutral scientific term in many contexts, even as the historical word Weiber or Weib can carry archaic or sometimes pejorative connotations in everyday speech.

Overall, weibliches functions primarily as a descriptive adjective indicating female- or feminine-related characteristics, especially in technical or formal language. See also männlich, gender terminology, and related grammatical declensions in German.