DictionaryAI

sex

SEKS/sɛks/

Pluralsexes (some meanings)

Verbsexes, sexing, sexed

7 meanings of sex

Practice

  1. 1
    have relationsnoununcountable
    Physical sexual activity, especially sexual intercourse.

    The novel deals frankly with love, sex, and betrayal.

    Doctors recommend using protection during sex.

    UsageThe usual phrase is have sex (with someone). Abstain from sex is formal.

    Similarintercourse, lovemaking, intimacy

    Oppositeabstinence, celibacy

    Note

    A modifier changes what the word covers: oral sex and anal sex name particular practices, while sex standing alone is usually heard as intercourse. D.H. Lawrence already uses the phrase have sex in 1929, and a 1962 piece in The Listener asks why Bond would just 'have sex' and disappear instead of being 'more tender' in his love-making. The formal phrase for going without it is abstain from sex, as in Abdullah Yusuf Ali's English translation of the Qur'an.

  2. 2
    biological classnouncountable
    Either of the main categories, usually male and female, into which people and other sexually reproducing organisms are divided by their role in reproduction; also, the fact of belonging to one.

    The sex of a reptile's offspring can depend on the temperature of the nest.

    In many parrots the sexes look so alike that breeders use DNA tests to tell them apart.

    UsageOften contrasted with gender, which usually refers to social roles and identity rather than biology.

    Similargender

    Note

    Some microbes, such as slime molds, have several mating types instead, which popular writing sometimes calls sexes, though none of them is male or female. In law and medicine it sits in lists beside age, and the Nineteenth Amendment bars denying the vote "on account of sex."

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Some slime molds have multiple mating types rather than male and female sexes. cnrs.fr
    • Popular explanations sometimes call these mating types sexes. mnhn.fr
    • These slime mold mating types are neither male nor female. lejournal.cnrs.fr
  3. 3
    nouncountable
    The members of one sex considered together as a group; in old use, women collectively.

    He had a reputation for being charming with the opposite sex.

    She has always confided more easily in her own sex than in men.

    UsageUsually with the and an adjective (the opposite sex) or a possessive (her own sex).

    Similargender

    Note

    A group noun that almost never stands bare. It comes with the and an adjective, as in the fairer sex or Bentham's "the female sex" of 1789, or with a possessive, as in Milton's "incident to all our sex." The adjective decides which group is meant, and the fairer sex has hardened into a fixed phrase for women.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Bentham used the words "the female sex". laits.utexas.edu
    • An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation was printed in 1780 but first published in 1789. econlib.org
    • The exact words "incident to all our sex" occur in Milton's writing. en.wikisource.org
  4. 4
    have relationsverbcolloquialUStransitive
    To have sexual activity with someone.

    He kept texting her at two in the morning, saying he wanted to come over and sex her.

    He boasted about sexing half the cast.

    UsageTakes the partner as its object: sexing her. Have sex with someone is the neutral phrase.

    Similarbed, shag, bang

Less common meanings

  1. 5
    private partsnounliteraryeuphemisticcountable
    A person's genitals, such as a penis, vulva, or vagina.
    She touched his sex with her hand.
    1993, Catherine Coulter, The Heiress Bride
    And the black cypresses strained upwards like the sex of a hanged man.
    1938, David Gascoyne, Hölderlin's Madness

    Similargenitals, genitalia, privates

    Note

    A veiled word for the genitals, used when a writer wants neither clinical anatomy nor coarseness. It appears in Killigrew in 1664, in Gascoyne's simile of a hanged man in 1938, and in Catherine Coulter's "She touched his sex." Because the word has other meanings, a paper may gloss it, as the New York Daily News did with "a fake sex (penis)."

  2. 6
    verbtransitive
    To determine whether an animal is male or female.

    Experienced handlers can sex day-old chicks with remarkable speed.

    The breeder sexed the kittens before listing them for sale.

    UsageOften passive: the chicks are sexed soon after hatching.

    Note

    A working verb for breeders and biologists, used whenever the answer cannot be seen at a glance. Birds were once sexed by laparoscopy. Now a feather's DNA will do, as Clive Roots's Domestication (2007) notes. The passive is common, and the verb reaches beyond whole animals: in Patterson and Smith's Beef Heifer Development, semen "is sexed at 90% accuracy."

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Birds have been sexed by laparoscopy, and Roots describes feather or blood DNA testing as an alternative. en.wiktionary.org
    • DNA from feathers can be used to determine a bird's sex. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
    • Clive Roots wrote Domestication, first published in 2007. bloomsbury.com
    • Beef Heifer Development, associated with Patterson and Smith, contains the quoted statement about semen sexing accuracy. en.wiktionary.org
  3. 7
    third categorynouncountable
    An additional category, especially of humans, defined by sexuality or by gender roles rather than by male and female.

    Certain communities formally recognize a third sex with its own social role.

    Anthropologists have documented additional sexes in many cultures.

    UsageMostly in third sex or another sex.

    Similargender

    Note

    Here the division is social rather than reproductive, and its best-known phrase is "third sex." Byron's Don Juan, Canto V (1821), has "a black old neutral personage / Of the third sex," and Hawkins's 1817 Claudian uses "another sex" for eunuchs. The ordinal or the word another does the work: it tells the reader that a category beyond male and female is meant.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • Don Juan first appeared in 1819; Canto V, containing this quotation, appeared in 1821. nls.uk
    • Byron's Don Juan contains the quoted words. gutenberg.org
    • Canto V, containing the quotation, was first published in 1821. gutenberg.org
    • Hawkins's English translation of Claudian was published in 1817. en.wikipedia.org
    • Hawkins's translation uses 'another sex' for eunuchs. en.wiktionary.org

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of sex apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

The word comes through Middle English sexe ("gender") and Old French sexe ("genitals; gender") from Latin sexus ("gender; males or females; genitals"). This traces back to Proto-Indo-European *sek- ("to cut, sever"), giving a sense of "division" into male and female. Its use for sexual intercourse was first attested in 1899 in the writings of H. G. Wells.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

  • English sex comes through Middle English sexe, meaning gender. en.wiktionary.org
  • The Middle English word derives from Old French sexe, meaning genitals or gender. en.wiktionary.org
  • The Old French word derives from Latin sexus, with the stated meanings. en.wiktionary.org
  • The word ultimately derives from Proto-Indo-European *sek-, meaning to cut or sever. en.wiktionary.org
  • The etymological sense is a division into male and female. en.wiktionary.org
  • The sexual-intercourse sense is first attested in 1899 in H. G. Wells's writings. en.wiktionary.org