transgender
Formstransgenders, transgendering, transgendered
- 1Of a person: having a gender identity that differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. This includes trans men and trans women and, in the broader and more common use, non-binary people.
Alex came out as transgender in college and now identifies as non-binary.
The support group welcomes transgender people of every identity, including agender and bigender members.
UsageUsed as an adjective: a transgender woman, transgender people. Style guides now generally prefer it to transgendered.
Similartrans
Note
Early print sometimes hyphenated it: Pierre Bowman's 1979 article on Christine Jorgensen calls her a trans-gender patient, glossing it with transsexual. In this broad use it takes in non-binary people too, which a stricter use, limited to trans men and trans women, leaves out.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Pierre Bowman's 1979 article about Christine Jorgensen uses the hyphenated trans-gender patient alongside transsexual. en.wiktionary.org
- 2Relating to transgender people or to their experiences or identity; also, intended for or open to use by transgender people.
The museum opened an exhibit on transgender history in the American West.
Advocates said the court's decision marked a turning point for transgender rights.
UsageGoes before a noun: transgender rights, transgender history. The short form trans is common.
Similartrans
- 3The state of being transgender.
Before we can answer this question, we need to consider two other phenomena – transsex and transgender – which also expose the muddle within conventional categories of sex.
2007, Alison Stone, “Sex”In spite of not "rootin' and tootin'" as a trans-gender case, in recent years [Christine] Jorgensen has been a staple on the college lecture circuit, speaking – of course – about trans-gender and herself.
1979, Pierre Bowman, “Back in showbiz Christine Jorgensen”Note
The mass noun names a phenomenon and usually stands beside parallel terms: Alison Stone's An Introduction to Feminist Philosophy (2007) pairs transsex and transgender, and Leslie Feinberg, in Workers World (2004), writes of same-sex love and transgender.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Alison Stone wrote An Introduction to Feminist Philosophy, first published in 2007. openlibrary.org
- Stone's book pairs transsex and transgender as phenomena. en.wiktionary.org
- Leslie Feinberg used same-sex love and transgender in Workers World in 2004. workers.org
Less common meanings
- 4Of a person: breaking with, or not identifying with, a culture's conventional gender roles and its categories of male and female.
The movement brought together cross-dressers, drag kings, and other transgender people who refused the old categories.
The club used transgender in a wide sense, for anyone who bent the usual rules of dress and behavior.
Similartrans, genderqueer
Note
Here the word is an umbrella for anyone who breaks gender conventions, whatever their identity. John Cloud, writing in Time, describes gender nonconformists reclaiming the power to name themselves with it. Its company shows its breadth: Howlin' Mad Johann's 1992 letter to Maximum Rocknroll lists it beside androgynous and bisexual.
- 5Extending across, or shared by, more than one gender.
Note
This older use describes what crosses or is shared between genders, not a person: in 1967 John P. Leary could call some unhappiness simply a transgender phenomenon, and Rosalind P. Petchesky in 1984 writes of collective (transgender) responsibility for childrearing.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- An older meaning of transgender is extending across multiple genders. en.wiktionary.org
- John P. Leary used transgender phenomenon to describe unhappiness in 1967. en.wiktionary.org
- Rosalind P. Petchesky's cited book was originally published in 1984. archive.org
- Petchesky writes of collective (transgender) responsibility for reproduction and childrearing. en.wiktionary.org
- 6To cause someone to have a different gender or sex.
UsageFor a person's own change of gender, say they transition.
Note
The verb is uncommon and often taken as offensive, and it can turn up in figurative writing about institutions: the 2005 edition of Sue Tolleson-Rinehart and Jyl J. Josephson's Gender and American Politics describes women nominees contributing to the regendering, or the transgendering, of a Cabinet still dominated by men.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Sue Tolleson-Rinehart and Jyl J. Josephson edited Gender and American Politics. ci.nii.ac.jp
- The book was first published in 2000; 2005 is the revised and expanded second edition. ci.nii.ac.jp
- The book describes women nominees contributing to the regendering or transgendering of a Cabinet dominated by men. api.pageplace.de
- 7A transgender person, or transgender people considered as a group.
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Origin
The adjective comes from trans- ("extending across, through, or over") + gender, modelled on transsexual and probably adapted from transgenderism, a term coined in 1965 by the American psychiatrist John F. Oliven. By the 1990s transgender had acquired its current senses and had largely replaced the earlier term transsexual; the noun and verb senses come from the adjective.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- The adjective combines trans- with gender, on the model of transsexual. en.wiktionary.org
- The adjective was probably adapted from transgenderism. en.wiktionary.org
- John F. Oliven was an American psychiatrist who coined transgenderism in 1965. en.wiktionary.org
- By the 1990s, transgender had acquired its current senses and largely displaced transsexual. en.wiktionary.org
- The noun and verb derive from the adjective. en.wiktionary.org