Which is grammatically more correct: to say "عضو" (male member) or "عضوة" (female member) when referring to a female who holds the position of a member in the provincial council?
Al-'udhw (with a dammah on the 'ayn and a kasrah), is one of the limbs of a sheep or other animals, or any bone abundant with its flesh. Its plural is "a'daa'." It is more eloquent not to mention the taa' (تاء) with the feminine, so we say "So-and-so is a member ('udhw) of such-and-such," because it is a name for one of the limbs and parts. Mentioning the taa' in nouns that are not صفات (descriptions/adjectives) is rare, as Ibn Malik mentioned in his Alfiyyah: "The sign of femininity is taa' or alif / And in nouns, they estimated the taa' like katif." The estimation is known by the pronoun.
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
Read the full answer on Ftawyhttps://ftawy.com/en/questions/75926