womb
n.-
1 anatomy (n.) B2 Upper Intermediate Medicinethe organ in a woman's body where a baby develops before birth.
the uterus; the organ in female mammals where offspring are conceived and gestate.
ExampleThe baby was safe and warm inside its mother's womb.
ExampleUltrasound technology allows doctors to monitor the development of the foetus within the womb with remarkable precision.
UsageIn modern medical contexts, 'uterus' is more common, while 'womb' is the standard term in everyday or emotional contexts.
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2 figurative place of origin (n.) C1 Advanced Literarya place where something is created or starts to grow.
a place or space where something is generated, nurtured, or processed in its earliest stages.
ExampleThe small workshop was the womb of many great inventions.
ExampleThe ancient city was often described as the womb of modern democracy, where the first concepts of civic duty were nurtured.
From Middle English wombe, wambe, from Old English womb, wamb (“belly, stomach; bowels; heart; womb; hollow”), from Proto-West Germanic wambu, from Proto-Germanic wambō (“belly, stomach, abdomen”). Cognate with Scots wam, wame (“womb”), Dutch wam (“dewlap of beef; belly of a fish”), German Wamme, Wampe (“paunch, belly”), Danish vom (“belly, paunch, rumen”), Swedish våmb (“belly, stomach, rumen”), Norwegian vom (“rumen”), Icelandic vömb (“belly, abdomen, stomach”), Old Welsh gumbelauc (“womb”), Breton gwamm (“woman, wife”), Sanskrit वपा (vapā́, “the skin or membrane lining the intestines or parts of the viscera, the caul or omentum”). Superseded non-native Middle English mater, matere (“womb”) and matris, matrice (“womb”) borrowed from Latin māter (“womb”) and Old French matrice (“womb”), respectively.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Last updated June 20, 2026