sex
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: sĕks
ipa: /sɛks/
rhymes: -ɛks
homophone: secs
homophone: sects (some accents)
Forms: form: sexes
form: sexe
form: s*x
Etymology: From Middle English sexe (“gender”), from Old French sexe (“genitals; gender”), from Latin sexus (“gender; gender traits; males or females; genitals”), from Proto-Italic *seksus, from Proto-Indo-European *séksus, from *sek- (“to cut, cut off, sever”), thus meaning "section, division" (into male and female).
Usage for women influenced by Middle French le sexe (“women”) (attested in 1580). Usage for third and additional sexes calqued from French troisième sexe, referring to masculine women in 1817 and homosexuals in 1847. First used by Lord Byron and others in English in reference to Catholic clergy. Usage for sexual intercourse first attested in 1899 (in the writings of H. G. Wells).
Senses: examples: text: The effect of the medication is dependent upon age, sex, and other factors.
text: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
ref: 1918, Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution:
text: I would never have guessed […] that slime molds can have thirteen sexes.
ref: 1994, Valerie Harms, Uc Rodale Nat Aud Enviro, page 268:
text: The State Department and current Secretary of State Marco Rubio are expressly directed under the injunction to “to process and issue passports [...] consistent with the State Department’s policy as of January 19, 2025,” and to allow passport applicants to self-declare their gender even if that information is “different from the sex assigned to those individuals under the [Trump] Passport Policy.”
ref: 2025 June 18, Samantha Riedel, “In Trans Legal Victory, Federal Judge Blocks Trump Admin From Denying Passport Gender Changes”, in Them:
hypernyms: category#Noun
class#Noun
coordinate_terms: gender#Noun
glosses: A category into which sexually-reproducing organisms are divided on the basis of their reproductive roles in their species; the system of such categories, which can differ by organism or by taxonomic branch.
examples: text: Still there are some loop-holes out of which a man may creep, and dare to think and act for himself; but for a woman it is an herculean task, because she has difficulties peculiar to her sex to overcome, which require almost super-human powers.
ref: 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC:
text: "But now another sex, in arms, is brought, / And, realms to guard, are eunuchs able thought!"
ref: 1817, The works of Claudian, tr. into Engl. verse by A. Hawkins, page 43:
text: A black old neutral personage / Of the third sex stept up.
ref: 1821 August 8, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, Cantos III, IV, and V, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto V, stanza XXVI:
text: I have encountered officers who believe a woman got a better assignment or somehow "got over" because of her sex.
ref: 1992, United States Naval Institute Proceedings, volume 118, page 23:
glosses: Another category, especially of humans and especially based on sexuality or gender roles.
examples: text: the fairer sex
text: It was a weakness / In me, but incident to all our sex.
ref: 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes, section 774:
text: The sensibility of the female sex appears […] to be greater than that of the male.
ref: 1780, Jeremy Bentham, Introduction to the Principles of Morals & Legislation, vi, §35:
glosses: The members of such a category, taken collectively.
examples: text: A lot of women now like men to pay for them on dates... We've dealt with the outdated view of sex underpinning this.
ref: 2005 November 11, Guardian, section 18:
glosses: The distinction and relation between these categories, especially in humans; gender.
examples: text: The sex of Venice are undoubtedly of a distinguished beauty.
ref: 1789 November 3, Arthur Young, Travels... undertaken with a view of ascertaining the cultivation... of the kingdom of France, i, 220:
text: I was not, however, better than my neighbors; the Sex had its charms for me as it had for others; But there always remained a sting, that time only wore away.
ref: c. 1840, George Nelson, Reminiscenses:
text: Even the reptile temperament of Noel Vanstone warmed under the influence of the sex: he had an undeniably appreciative eye for a handsome woman, and Magdalen's grace and beauty were not thrown away on him.
ref: 1862, [William] Wilkie Collins, chapter IV, in No Name. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co., […], →OCLC, 4th (Aldborough, Suffolk), page 195:
glosses: Women; the human female gender and those who belong to it.
examples: text: We marry in fear and trembling, sex for a home is the woman's traffic, and the man comes to his heart's desire when his heart's desire is dead.
ref: 1899, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “In the Raphael Gallery”, in Love and Mr. Lewisham: The Story of a Very Young Couple, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, page 144:
text: If you want to have sex, you've got to trust / At the core of your heart, the other creature.
ref: 1929, D.H. Lawrence, Pansies, section 57:
text: 1934, translation of the Qur'an (23:5) by Abdullah Yusuf Ali
(The believers ... those ... ) who abstain from sex
text: Why wasn't Bond ‘more tender’ in his love-making? Why did he just ‘have sex’ and disappear?
ref: 1962 June 7, The Listener, 1006/2
text: It wouldn't work with you... Sex, I mean. You're... easy to be with. You're... you're not dangerous. You're my best friend, John. I couldn't have it on with my best friend, John. It would be embarrassing. Sorry. Honest.
ref: 1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 3:
glosses: Sexual activity, usually sexual intercourse unless preceded by a modifier.
examples: text: Another ha's gon through with the bargain... One that will find the way to her Sex, before you'le come to kissing her hand.
ref: 1664, Thomas Killigrew, Princess, ii, ii:
text: And the black cypresses strained upwards like the sex of a hanged man.
ref: 1938, David Gascoyne, Hölderlin's Madness, section 18:
text: She touched his sex with her hand.
ref: 1993, Catherine Coulter, The Heiress Bride, page 354:
text: And he put in a fake sex (penis) because he wanted to make the scene more real, more rude.
ref: 2003 March 2, Daily News, New York, section 2:
glosses: Genitalia: a penis or vagina/vulva.
Synonyms: sense: divisions of organisms by reproductive role
english: proscribed when referring to humans: see usage note
translation: proscribed when referring to humans: see usage note
word: gender
Hypernyms: species
Hyponyms: sense: usual
word: male and female
sense: in some contexts
word: bigender
sense: in some contexts
word: transgender
sense: in some contexts
word: genderless
sense: in some contexts
word: intersex
sense: in some contexts
word: genderfluid
sense: in some contexts
word: homosexual
sense: in some contexts
word: eunuch
word: clergy
Derived terms: ambisextrous
anal sex
antisex
battle of the sexes
better than sex
biological sex
biosex
bio-sex
birth sex
bum sex
butt sex
casual sex
chemsex
child sex abuse
child sex tourism
compusex
cross-sex
cross sex
cybersex
desex
disorder of sex development
doublesex
dry sex
electrosex
endosex
eye sex
eye-sex
fairer sex
fair sex
foresex
gendersex
gentler sex
gentle sex
group sex
hate-sex
hate sex
have sex
heterosex
imposex
insta-sex
intercrural sex
intersex
intrasex
leathersex
legal sex
manual sex
midsex
mixed-sex
monosex
multisex
netsex
nonpenetrative sex
nonsex
opposite sex
oral sex
other-sex
perisex
phone sex
phone-sex
postsex
presex
pro-sex
protected sex
pure sex
purple shirt of sex
rectal sex
safer sex
safe sex
same sex
same-sex
same-sex marriage
secondary sex characteristic
self-sexing
sexable
sex abuse
sex-abusing
sex act
sex activity
sex addict
sex addiction
sex affair
sexaholic
sexaholism
sex aid
sexalicious
sex-alive
sex and shopping
sex-anger
sex-angry
sex antagonism
sex-appeal
sex appeal
sex-appealing
sex assignment
sexathon
sex attack
sex attractant
sex awareness
sex behavior
sex behaviour
sex-blind
sexboat
sex bolt
sex bomb
sexbot
sex boycott
sex bracelet
sex call
sexcapade
sexcation
sex cell
sexcellent
sexcess
sexcessory
sex change
sex character
sex characteristic
sex chromatin
sex-chromosomal
sex chromosome
sex circuit
sexcite
sex clinic
sex club
sex comb
sex comedy
sex complex
sex compulsion
sex conflict
sex-conscious
sex consciousness
sex contrast
sex cord
sex correlation
sex craving
sex-crazed
sex crime
sex criminal
sex cult
sex determinant
sex determination
sex determiner
sex-determining
sex difference
sex-discriminating
sex discrimination
sex-discriminatory
sex disqualification
sex distinction
sex distribution
sex divergence
sex doll
sexdom
sex drive
sexdroid
sex drug
sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll
sex dungeon
sex economy
sex ed
sex education
sex educator
sex-emancipated
sex emotion
sex equality
sexer
sexercise
sex excitement
sex experience
sex exploitation
sex feeling
sexfest
sex festival
sex fiend
sexfight
sex film
sex-flow
sex flush
sex-free
sexful
sex function
sex game
Sexgate
sex gene
sex gland
sex god
sex goddess
sex guru
sex hair
sex-hate
sex-hatred
sexhaustion
sex-haver
sex heredity
sexhibition
sexhibitionist
sexhood
sex hormone
sex-hormone-binding globulin
sex hormone binding globulin
sex hormone-binding globulin
sex-hunger
sex-hungry
sex hygiene
sexify
sexile
sex impulse
sex in
sex industry
sex-inertia
sex-influenced
sex instinct
sex instruction
sex interest
sex intergrade
sexism
sexist
sex joke
sex killer
sex-killing
sex kitten
sex-kittenish
sex laborer
sex labourer
sexless
sex, lies, and videotape
sex life
sexlike
sex-limited
sex line
sex-linked
sexlinked
sex-longing
sexlore
sex love
sexly
sex-machine
sex machine
sex-mad
sex magazine
sex man
sex mania
sex maniac
sex manifestation
sex manual
sexmobile
sexmonger
sex morality
sex mosaic
sex movie
sex-mystery
sex-negative
sex negativity
sex-negativity
sex-neutral
sex novel
sex number
sex object
sex-obsessed
sex obsession
sex offence
sex offender
sex offense
sexologist
sexology
sex on a stick
sex on legs
sex-on-premises venue
Sex on the Beach
sex on the beach
sexophobe
sexophobia
sexophobic
sexorcism
sex organ
sex orgy
sex pact
sex pal
sex partner
sex party
sexpat
sexpect
sexpectation
sexpedition
sexperience
sexperiment
sexperimental
sexperimentation
sexpert
sexpertise
sex pest
sexphobia
sexphobic
sex pillow
sexpionage
sexpiration date
sex play
sexpletive
sexplicit
sexploit
sexploitation
sexploiter
sexploration
sexplore
sexplorer
sex plus
sex-plus
sexpo
sexposé
sexposition
sex position
sex-positive
sex-positivity
sex positivity
sexpot
sex power
sexpresso
sex pride
sex privilege
sex problem
sex question
sex ratio
sex reassignment
sex reassignment surgery
sex-related
sex relation
sex relationship
sex repression
sex reveal
sex reversal
sex-reversed
sex-reversing
sex-ridden
sex ring
sex role
sexsational
sex scandal
sex scene
sex-segregated
sex selection
sex-selective
sex sells
sexship
sex shop
sex show
sex slave
sex slavery
sex-smelling
sex-specific
sex-specificity
sex starvation
sex-starved
sex stereotype
sex stereotyping
sex steroid
sex story
sex strike
sex surfer
sexsurfing
sex surrogate
sex swing
sex symbol
sextacular
sex talk
sex tape
sextastic
sexterity
sex-text
sex-texting
sex therapist
sex therapy
sex thrill
sexting
sex tool
sextopia
sextort
sextortion
sex tour
sex tourism
sex tourist
sex toy
sextra
sextracurricular
sex trade
sex-traffic
sex trafficking
sex-trafficking
sex-transforming
sextravaganza
sextremism
sextremist
sex-typed
sex-typing
sex union
sex urge
Sexville
sex war
sex warfare
sexway
sexwear
sex work
sex worker
sex working
sexworthy
sexx0r
sexy
single-sex
softer sex
solo sex
sterner sex
stern sex
succsex
succsexful
supersex
survival sex
tantric sex
technosex
telephone sex
third sex
transsex
unisex
unprotected sex
unsafe sex
unsex
unsexlike
vaginal sex
vent sex
viral sex
virtual sex
weaker sex
whimsical sex
zipper sex
Related terms: sexual
sexualiation
sexualise
sexuality
sexualization
sexualize
sexually
female
gender
gendersex
intersexed
male
missexed
missexing
sex up
third sex
unsex