sexes

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of sex.

   Many species show clear physical differences between the sexes.

   Schools once educated the two sexes in separate classrooms.

   Note

   A plural that belongs only to the countable meanings of sex: the categories themselves and the people grouped within them. The uncountable uses have no plural, so sexes never means acts of intercourse or the general distinction between categories. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb (a breeder sexes chicks). An article or number before it (the two sexes) marks the noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of sex.

   The farmer sexes each chick soon after it hatches.

   The breeder sexes every litter of guinea pigs before the pups go to new homes.

   Note

   A working verb for farmers and breeders. In its neutral use it is transitive and takes an animal as its object: she sexes the kittens, the hatchery sexes its chicks. A colloquial American use means to have sex, with or without an object, and that informality keeps it out of neutral prose. A named animal object makes the neutral reading unmistakable.

3. 3
   nounarchaic

   Plural of sexe.

   Note

   An archaic spelling's plural that looks entirely modern. Sexe once stood where sex stands now, but adding -s to either gives the same word. A reader of older texts meets sexes with no sign of the earlier spelling, which shows only in the singular. For present-day writing, the meaning and grammar are simply those of the ordinary plural noun.

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