gender
Pluralgenders
Verbgenders, gendering, gendered
Pluralgenders
Formsgenders, gendering, gendered
- 1Whether someone feels like a man, a woman, or something else, and the social role that goes with it.
She is comfortable with her gender and the way she expresses it.
Some people feel their gender does not match the body they were born with.
UsageSay gender role and gender identity.
Note
- 2The grouping of living things into male or female, based on their role in reproduction.
The form asked me to write my gender as male or female.
Doctors can often tell a baby's gender before it is born.
UsageFor the body, many people say sex.
Similarsex
Note
- 3In some languages, a way of sorting nouns into groups such as masculine and feminine.
Like sorting words into separate groups, the way some languages treat certain words as masculine and others as feminine.
In French, every noun has a gender, either masculine or feminine.
German grammar gives each noun a gender that learners must memorize.
Note
- 4To treat a person or thing as male or female, or as meant for one gender.
Many stores gender toys by putting dolls and trucks in separate aisles.
Some parents gender colors, saying pink is for girls and blue is for boys.
UsageUse gendered before a noun, as in gendered language.
Note
Less common meanings
- 5
- 6An old word meaning to cause or produce something, or to have young.
Our whole life was passed in public, which gendered a sympathy and good fellowship that always distinguishes Wykehamists from the rest of mankind.
1893, The Academy and LiteratureHere, gendered means produced or created, so public life led to sympathy.Note
- 7A class, sort, or kind of thing.
Note
- 8For plugs and sockets, whether a connector fits into another (male), takes one in (female), or joins its own kind (genderless).
- 9In grammar, another name for voice: whether a verb is active or passive.
The general distinction is between three 'genders' out of the five genders of the Latin tradition: active gender, passive gender, neuter gender.
2007, Bernard Colombat, “Some Problems in Transferring the Latin Model to the First French GrammarsHere, genders means voices of a verb, like active or passive. - 10A musical instrument from Indonesia, like a xylophone, played in gamelan music.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of gender apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origins
It came through Old French from Latin "genere," meaning "type" or "kind." It is related to the words "genre" and "genus."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Gender came through Old French from Latin genere, meaning type or kind. en.wiktionary.org
- Gender is etymologically related to genre and genus. en.wiktionary.org
It came through Middle French from the Latin word "generare."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The archaic verb gender came through Middle French from Latin generare. en.wiktionary.org