maidenhoods

Maidenhoods is the plural of maidenhood, the state or time of being a maiden—that is, an unmarried young woman or virgin.

The term belongs to literary or old-fashioned registers and appears most often in historical fiction or discussions of past social customs.

Victorian novels often dramatized the protection of maidenhoods as a matter of family honor.

Like maidenhead, maidenhood can specifically denote virginity, though this sense is increasingly archaic.