gender

noun

Identification as a man, a woman, or something else, and association with a (social) role or set of behavioral and cultural traits, clothing, etc; a category to which a person belongs on this basis. (Compare gender role, gender identity.)

(grammar) A division of nouns and pronouns (and sometimes of other parts of speech) into masculine or feminine, and sometimes other categories like neuter or common, and animate or inanimate.

(hardware) The quality which distinguishes connectors, which may be male (fitting into another connector) and female (having another connector fit into it), or genderless or androgynous (capable of fitting together with another connector of the same type).

An Indonesian musical instrument resembling a xylophone, used in gamelan music.

(grammar) Synonym of voice (“particular way of inflecting or conjugating verbs”).

(now sometimes proscribed) Sex (a category, either male or female, into which sexually-reproducing organisms are divided on the basis of their reproductive roles in their species).

(obsolete) Class; kind.

verb

(sociology) To assign a gender to (a person); to perceive as having a gender; to address using terms (pronouns, nouns, adjectives...) that express a certain gender.

(sociology) To perceive (a thing) as having characteristics associated with a certain gender, or as having been authored by someone of a certain gender.

(archaic) To engender.

(archaic or obsolete) To breed.

adjective

(transgender slang) Evoking positive feelings regarding gender, like gender euphoria or gender envy.

Roots

genusgend- · Latin · kind, birth

Synonyms & related words for gender

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Words related to gender

Explore words related to gender — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include sexuality, sex, genderless, intersexual, cisgender, intersex, noninflected, transgender. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Where does gender come from?

The word gender breaks down into one root of Latin origin: the root gend-, from Latin genus (“kind, birth”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.