"chick lit" meaning in English

See chick lit in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈt͡ʃɪk ˌlɪt/ Forms: chick-lit [alternative], chicklit [alternative]
Etymology: From the English slang words chick (“girl, woman”) and lit (“literature”). Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} chick lit (uncountable)
  1. (often derogatory) Literature perceived to appeal to, or be marketed at, young women, typically concerning romantic dilemmas. Tags: derogatory, often, uncountable Related terms: chick flick Coordinate_terms: dick lit, manfiction
    Sense id: en-chick_lit-en-noun-37G438i~ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Literature

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "From the English slang words chick (“girl, woman”) and lit (“literature”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "chick-lit",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chicklit",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "chick lit (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Literature",
          "orig": "en:Literature",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "coordinate_terms": [
        {
          "word": "dick lit"
        },
        {
          "word": "manfiction"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              48,
              57
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2010 August 5, Michele Gorman, “The chick-lit debate: light doesn't have to mean stupid”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "Hello, my name is Michele and I'm proud to be a chick-lit author. I write the kind of novel that gets spattered with margarita and suncream rather than soaked in Booker-type praise. You know the books I mean. You need only look for their pastel covers, or follow the trail that leads to one of their many detractors – for they make some women spit with gender-bashing venom.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Literature perceived to appeal to, or be marketed at, young women, typically concerning romantic dilemmas."
      ],
      "id": "en-chick_lit-en-noun-37G438i~",
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "appeal",
          "appeal"
        ],
        [
          "market",
          "market"
        ],
        [
          "romantic",
          "romantic"
        ],
        [
          "dilemma",
          "dilemma"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(often derogatory) Literature perceived to appeal to, or be marketed at, young women, typically concerning romantic dilemmas."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "chick flick"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "often",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈt͡ʃɪk ˌlɪt/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "chick lit"
}
{
  "coordinate_terms": [
    {
      "word": "dick lit"
    },
    {
      "word": "manfiction"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the English slang words chick (“girl, woman”) and lit (“literature”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "chick-lit",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chicklit",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "chick lit (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "chick flick"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English derogatory terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Literature"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              48,
              57
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2010 August 5, Michele Gorman, “The chick-lit debate: light doesn't have to mean stupid”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "Hello, my name is Michele and I'm proud to be a chick-lit author. I write the kind of novel that gets spattered with margarita and suncream rather than soaked in Booker-type praise. You know the books I mean. You need only look for their pastel covers, or follow the trail that leads to one of their many detractors – for they make some women spit with gender-bashing venom.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Literature perceived to appeal to, or be marketed at, young women, typically concerning romantic dilemmas."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "appeal",
          "appeal"
        ],
        [
          "market",
          "market"
        ],
        [
          "romantic",
          "romantic"
        ],
        [
          "dilemma",
          "dilemma"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(often derogatory) Literature perceived to appeal to, or be marketed at, young women, typically concerning romantic dilemmas."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "often",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈt͡ʃɪk ˌlɪt/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "chick lit"
}

Download raw JSONL data for chick lit meaning in English (1.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.