Synonyms of virile

virile

adjective

ˈvir-əl 

as in male

of, relating to, or marked by qualities traditionally associated with men

men were once expected to be interested only in such virile activities as hunting

Synonyms & Similar Words

• male
• masculine
• manly
• manlike
• macho
• mannish
• man-size
• hypermasculine
• hairy-chested
• boyish
• hoydenish
• tomboyish
• butch
• Amazonian
• ultramasculine

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• unmanly
• unmasculine
• feminine
• effeminate
• girlish
• womanly
• sissy
• impotent
• metrosexual
• womanish
• emasculated
• androgynous
• sissified
• weakened
• unmacho
• womanlike
• neuter

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of virile

Hundreds of frat boys came out to watch a head-to-head match between the effluvia of USC’s and UCLA’s most virile students, moving through a plastic maze. — Sam Kriss, Harpers Magazine, 24 Feb. 2026

America is strong, America is virile. — David Remnick, New Yorker, 6 Feb. 2026

And the possibility of a virile and serious and seriously taken black man—all three—is ignored in virtually the entire world of Cather’s and Hemingway’s fiction. — Literary Hub, 3 Feb. 2026

Rather than prizing animals for their beauty, their virile traits or their straight-up cool characteristics, frogposting is all about vulnerable animals—the dweebs of the animal kingdom. — Hazlitt, 3 Dec. 2025