Synonyms

girlboss

American

[gurl-baws, -bos] / ˈgɜrlˌbɔs, -ˌbɒs /

noun

Informal.

a woman, especially a young woman, who is ambitious and successful in her career.

This guide will help you get it together so that you can accomplish your goals and be a girlboss!
My girlboss of a sister graduated five years ago and has already been promoted twice.

Etymology

Origin of girlboss

Popularized in 2014 by U.S. businesswoman Sophia Amoruso (born 1984) in her book Girlboss; girl ( def. ) + boss ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

That can feel like a threat to the girlboss part of your brain.

From Los Angeles Times

At first glance, Maia seems like a girlboss-in-training, a “nesting doll” of Alyssa, the archetypal Millennial girlboss.

From Salon

Other critics include Alison Herman, writing in Variety that it is a "clumsy, condescending take on rah-rah girlboss feminism", while the Hollywood Reporter's Angie Han called Kardashian an "appropriately wooden lead for Ryan Murphy's empty, unforgivably dull drama".

From BBC

In a video she posted to TikTok in August, Atienza spoke about how “misunderstood and misrepresented feminism is” on social media, calling out certain “girlboss” trends as being “misogyny packaged into a pink sparkly bow.”

From Los Angeles Times

In her fourth outing with Mr. Lanthimos, Emma Stone again shows an impressively daring quality in a grueling and degrading role, which spoofs today’s clichés about girlboss power.

From The Wall Street Journal

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023