Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: héroïne
- English from 1650. The sense of "female lead character" is from 1715.
heroine (plural heroines)
- A female hero.
- A female lead character.
1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Affair at the Novelty Theatre:
- Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.
In the sense 1, it is more common to say hero today.
- She is an American hero.