What does gender mean?

Definitions for gender
ˈdʒɛn dərgen·der

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word gender.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. gender, grammatical gendernoun

    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

  2. sex, gender, sexualitynoun

    the properties that distinguish organisms on the basis of their reproductive roles

    "she didn't want to know the sex of the foetus"

Wiktionary

  1. gendernoun

    A division of nouns and pronouns (and sometimes of other parts of speech), such as masculine, feminine, neuter or common.

  2. gendernoun

    A division between classes or kinds.

  3. gendernoun

    The mental analogue of sex: one's maleness (masculinity), femaleness (femininity), etc., as seen from one's own perspective.

    Susan's gender is neither male nor female; ze identifies as two-spirit.

  4. gendernoun

    A socio-cultural phenomenon that divides people into various categories such as "male" and "female", with each having associated dress, roles, stereotypes, etc.

    Gender in Western society is often viewed as a binary entity, with only males and females.

  5. genderverb

    to engender

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Gendernoun

    Etymology: genus, Latin; gendre, French.

    Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners; so that if we will supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our will. William Shakespeare, Othello.

    The other motive,
    Why to a publick court I might not go,
    Is the great love the general gender bear me. William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

    Cubitus, sometimes cubitum in the neutral gender, signifies the lower part of the arm on which we lean. Arbuthnot.

    Ulysses speaks of Nausicaa, yet immediately changes the words into the masculine gender. Notes on the Odyssey.

  2. To Genderverb

    Etymology: engendrer, French.

    Foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strife. 2 Tim. ii. 23.

  3. To Genderverb

    To copulate; to breed.

    A cistern for foul toads
    To gender in. William Shakespeare, Othello.

    Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind. Lev. xix. 19.

ChatGPT

  1. gender

    Gender refers to the social and cultural roles, behaviors, and expectations that society imposes on individuals based on their sex. It encompasses the attitudes, characteristics, and roles that society attributes to individuals based on their perceived or assigned sex, rather than solely on biological differences. Gender is a complex concept that differs across cultures and can encompass categories such as masculinity, femininity, and non-binary identities. It is important to note that gender is distinct from biological sex, which refers to the physical and physiological differences between males and females.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Gendernoun

    kind; sort

  2. Gendernoun

    sex, male or female

  3. Gendernoun

    a classification of nouns, primarily according to sex; and secondarily according to some fancied or imputed quality associated with sex

  4. Gendernoun

    to beget; to engender

  5. Genderverb

    to copulate; to breed

  6. Etymology: [OF. genre, gendre (with excrescent d.), F.genre, fr. L. genus, generis, birth, descent, race, kind, gender, fr. the root of genere, gignere, to beget, in pass., to be born, akin to E. kin. See Kin, and cf. Generate, Genre, Gentle, Genus.]

Wikidata

  1. Gender

    Gender is a range of physical, mental, and behavioral characteristics distinguishing between masculinity and femininity. Depending on the context, the term may refer to biological sex, social roles, or gender identity. Sexologist John Money introduced the terminological distinction between biological sex and gender as a role in 1955. Before his work, it was uncommon to use the word "gender" to refer to anything but grammatical categories. However, Money's meaning of the word did not become widespread until the 1970s, when feminist theory embraced the distinction between biological sex and the social construct of gender. Today, the distinction is strictly followed in some contexts, especially the social sciences and documents written by the World Health Organization. However, in most other contexts, even in some areas of social sciences, the meaning of gender has undergone a usage shift to include "sex" or even to replace the latter word. Although this gradual change in the meaning of gender can be traced to the 1980s, a small acceleration of the process in the scientific literature was observed when the Food and Drug Administration started to use "gender" instead of "sex" in 1993. "Gender" is now commonly used even to refer to the physiology of non-human animals, without any implication of social gender roles.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Gender

    jen′dėr, v.t. to beget.—v.i. (B.) to copulate. [An abbrev. of engender.]

  2. Gender

    jen′dėr, n. kind, esp. with regard to sex: (gram.) the distinction of nouns according to sex. [Fr. genre—L. genus, generis, a kind, kin.]

Editors Contribution

  1. gender

    The fact of being a male or female human being or male or female living organism.

    Gender is used in human resources data and reports for various purposes.


    Submitted by MaryC on March 25, 2020  

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. GENDER

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Gender is ranked #124548 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Gender surname appeared 138 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Gender.

    87.6% or 121 total occurrences were White.
    8.7% or 12 total occurrences were Black.

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'gender' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #4424

  2. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'gender' in Nouns Frequency: #1827

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

How to pronounce gender?

How to say gender in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of gender in Chaldean Numerology is: 6

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of gender in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of gender in a Sentence

  1. Tom Burnett:

    Finding ways to address the gender equity issues that have come to exist through the years between the Division I Women’s and Men’s Basketball Championships is a priority, and we are dedicated to making impactful changes. if both committees agree that the recommendation of having both Final Fours in the same city is the best option, we are committed to seeing that it will be executed with comprehensive planning.

  2. Jussie Smollett:

    As my family stated, these types of cowardly attacks are happening to my sisters, brothers and non-gender conforming siblings daily, i am not and should not be looked upon as an isolated incident.

  3. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:

    It's 2015. [In response to being questioned on why he implemented gender equality in his cabinet.]

  4. Deputy FAA Administrator Bradley Mims:

    Implementing gender-neutral language into the aviation community is an important step towards achieving diversity and inclusion in the workforce.

  5. Anita Hill:

    We have been listening to presidential debates and I have been trying to keep track, but I haven't heard one question about gender violence posed to the candidates. That needs to be addressed, i think this is something that we need to be raising awareness about. If you go to a town hall and you're in a primary state, I hope you'll raise your hand and ask the candidates what they're going to do about gender violence.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

gender#1#2727#10000

Translations for gender

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

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"gender." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 16 Mar. 2025. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/gender>.

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