Added 9 October 2026
gender
/ˈd͡ʒɛndə/ noun
In Latin: genus, sexus Wiktionary
noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about gender at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- A grammatical category in inflected languages governing the agreement between nouns and pronouns and adjectives; in some languages it is quite arbitrary but in Indo-European languages it is usually based on sex or animateness.
-
The properties that distinguish organisms on the basis of their reproductive roles.
she didn't want to know the sex of the foetus
Origin
From Middle English gendre, borrowed from Old French gendre, borrowed from Latin genere (“type, kind”). Doublet of genre and genus. The verb developed after the noun. Displaced native Old English hād (“sex, gender”).
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)