heroine

noun

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her·o·ine | \ ˈher-ə-wən

, ˈhir-, ˈhe-rə-

Definition of heroine

1a : a mythological or legendary woman often of divine descent having great strength or ability

b : a woman admired and emulated for her achievements and qualities American heroines such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosa Parks remembered as the heroine of the flood

2a : the principal female character in a literary or dramatic work the heroine of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

b : the central female figure in an event or period

Examples of heroine in a Sentence

The town remembered her as the heroine of the flood and erected a statue in her honor.

Recent Examples on the Web The mark of a true heroine is confidence and courage, and the leading ladies of your favorite Disney films, Marvel movies and television shows are not short on either. — Cameron Jenkins, Good Housekeeping, 12 May 2022 Here, our heroine is on a different journey: to establish a peace accord with her own period, whose cyclical hormonal fluctuations wreak havoc on her body and relationships. — Washington Post, 20 Apr. 2022 And yet the show is refreshingly uninterested in a conventional heroine’s journey toward romantic or professional fulfillment. — Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 4 Apr. 2022 Our heroine is Shirley, the intrepid daughter of hard-working parents who run a market in an immigrant neighborhood in what appears to be the early decades of the 20th century. — Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 18 Mar. 2022 Its heroine is Meg Murry, a gawky, socially awkward adolescent whose father, a physicist on a mysterious assignment for the government, has suddenly disappeared. — Ruth Franklin, The New York Review of Books, 12 Mar. 2020 The book’s fast-flowing narrative, which begins in 1937 and proceeds through the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, thrusts the reader into its heroine’s world. — Tom Nolan, WSJ, 29 Apr. 2022 Over the years, her clientele included Blondie’s Debbie Harry, avant-garde heroine Diamanda Galás, Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna, Broadway performers, downtown firebrands, and anyone who wanted to learn to sing. — Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 29 Mar. 2022 Campion, the first woman to be nominated twice for the best director Oscar, became the Internet’s sharp-tongued heroine. — Washington Post, 9 Mar. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'heroine.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.