The term girlfriend is usually used in one of two senses, each implying a kind of intimate friendship:
- When describing a girl or woman as "girlfriend" of a heterosexual woman, it is usually used in terms of very close friends. It usually has no sexual or romantic connotation in that sense of its usage.
- When describing a girl or woman as "girlfriend" of a man or of a bisexual or lesbian woman, it is almost always used to refer to a woman that is involved in a romantic or sexual relationship with that person. The equivalent male term is boyfriend. It may describe various stages of courtship outside of marriage. Some consider the term "girlfriend" offensive, and use womanfriend as an alternative.
The term is also sometimes used as a term of endearment between gay male friends, in the first (non-sexual or -romantic) sense of the word, as an ironic reference to the common perception of gay men and boys as "girls".
See also
Girlfriend is also a Hindi film.
