Intersex

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɪn.tə.sɛks/

Definitions

1. A person whose biological sex characteristics do not fit typical definitions of male or female, or the condition of having such characteristics
2. A category describing individuals who possess both male and female biological traits, or the state of exhibiting mixed sexual characteristics
3. Referring to a condition where an individual's physical sex attributes include elements of both genders, or denoting a person embodying those attributes

Etymology: The English "intersex" was borrowed from German "Intersexe," and its parts are plain enough: "inter-" meaning "between" and "sex." The sense is a person or condition lying between the categories of male and female. The same Latin prefix turns up in "intersect," which is in fact a doublet of this word, the two having come into English by different routes from the same root, so one entered as a term of geometry and the other as a term of biology. The word's modern sense has been shaped by the way it was adopted. In German it carried a medical and biological meaning, and English took it over with that same clinical focus, describing bodily characteristics rather than identity. Because of this, it is used as both an adjective and a noun, describing either a condition or the people who have it.

Synonyms: hermaphrodite, bisexual, androgynous, ambiguous, gender nonconforming

Antonyms: male, female, cisgender, binary, gender normative