genders

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of gender.

   French and Spanish assign their nouns to two grammatical genders.

   The study compared how the two genders responded to the new treatment.

   Note

   A plural whose meaning shifts with its company. In grammar, genders are classes of nouns: masculine, feminine, neuter, common, animate, inanimate. Among connectors, they are the male, female and genderless types. Used for the two sexes, as in "both genders," it draws objections from some usage authorities, who prefer sexes when biology is meant. When identity or social role is meant, genders is the expected plural.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of gender.

   The grammar genders each noun according to its ending.

   Marketing frequently genders products to target specific groups of buyers.

   Note

   A verb whose present-day uses are social. A speaker genders a person through the pronouns chosen, and a reader genders a text by assuming its author was a man or a woman. In archaic use the same verb meant engender or breed, so an older line in which pride genders strife belongs to that sense. It shares its spelling with the noun plural, and its subject tells them apart.

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