Homophones for
adventuress, adventurous

adventuress / adventurous [ədˈvɛn(t)ʃ(ə)rəs]

adventuress – n. – 1. a woman who has adventures; 2. a derogatory term for a woman who seeks financial or social gain using inappropriate means

adventurous – adj. – 1. rash, 2. enterprising, 3. having adventures

Discussion

Any one can be adventurous, but only a girl or a women can be an adventuress…Just how sexist can I be?

I’ll sidestep that question and instead come back to basic word structure. Many words substitute ‘-ess’ for ‘-er, -or’ to indicate the feminine form. This creates a whole group of additional homophone sets such as the one above. The tendency has fallen a bit out of fashion, but is very much present in English literature.

Consider words such as actress and murderess but be careful.

Not all words ending in ‘-ess’ are feminine. Some are much broader such as kindness, creativeness, wholesomeness…which should apply to our whole race.