sexual
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈsɛk.ʃuː.əl/
ipa: /ˈsɛk.sju.əl/
ipa: /ˈsɛk.ʃu.əl/
ipa: /ˈsɛk.ʃəl/
rhymes: -ɛkʃuːəl
rhymes: -ɛksjuːəl
rhymes: -ɛkʃəl
Forms: form: more sexual
form: most sexual
Etymology: Etymology tree
Latin sexus
Proto-Italic *-ālis
Latin -ālis
Latin sexuālisbor.
English sexual
From Latin sexuālis, from sexus (“sex”), equivalent to sex + -ual.
Senses: examples: text: Women face sexual discrimination in the workplace.
glosses: Arising from the fact of being male or female; pertaining to sex or gender, or to the social relations between the sexes.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: Capable of sexual reproduction; sexed, sexuate.
examples: text: Giving oral sex is my favorite sexual act.
text: One particularly damaging, but often ignored, effect of conflict on education is the proliferation of attacks on schools[…]as children, teachers or school buildings become the targets of attacks. Parents fear sending their children to school. Girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence.
ref: 2013 July 19, Mark Tran, “Denied an education by war”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 1:
text: “When you’re not numbing out with substances and suddenly you’re face to face with somebody you want to be sexual with, that can be really scary at first,” said Laura Rademacher, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Minneapolis who offers a class on sober sex in her practice.
ref: 2025 January 17, Catherine Pearson, “The Joy — and Awkwardness — of Sober Sex”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
glosses: Pertaining to sexual intercourse or other intimate physical contact.
examples: text: She's a very sexual woman.
text: We don't often think of Jesus as a sexual person, but He certainly was not asexual. He was not just God on earth. He was fully human and […] He was sexual, single, and celibate.
ref: 1994, Purity & passion, →ISBN, page 67:
glosses: Characterised by sexual feelings or behaviour; possessing sexuality.
examples: text: a sexual innuendo
text: one's sexual preferences
glosses: Pertaining to sexuality as a cultural phenomenon; relating to sexual behaviour or conduct.
examples: text: […] “You know, there are asexuals with sexual partners.” His ears flicked, and he grinned. “There's things both of us can try to do[…]”
ref: 2016, Kyell Gold, Black Angel, Kyell Gold, →ISBN:
text: Izzy tells me that at her high school the most useful distinction is not between heterosexuals and homosexuals but between those who are sexual and those who are not. The abstainers call themselves “aces,” short for “asexuals.”
ref: 2017, T. T. Monday, Double Switch, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, →ISBN, page 98:
synonyms: allosexual
glosses: Experiencing sexual attraction; not asexual.
raw_tags: of a person
examples: text: [T]he inquiry is whether she have reason or not. If she have, which, for a moment, I will take for granted, she was not created merely to be the solace of man, and the sexual should not destroy the human character.
ref: 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, “Observations on the State of Degradation to which Woman is Reduced by Various Causes”, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC, page 112:
synonyms: feminine
glosses: Pertaining to the female sex.
Derived terms: androsexual
antisexual
asexual
autosexual
bisexual
chemosexual
cissexual
contrasexual
cosexual
cybersexual
demisexual
ecosexual
ephebosexual
erotosexual
esexual
eusexual
finsexual
flexisexual
genetic sexual attraction
gray-sexual
graysexual
gynesexual
have sexual relations
heterosexual
hobosexual
homosexual
hypersexual
hyposexual
intersexual
intrasexual
isosexual
malsexual
matrisexual
minsexual
monosexual
multisexual
necrosexual
ninsexual
nonsexual
non-sexual
objectum-sexual
omnisexual
orthosexual
other-sexual
pansexual
pan-sexual
parasexual
patrisexual
pedosexual
perisexual
persistent sexual arousal syndrome
plurisexual
polysexual
pomosexual
pornosexual
postsexual
presexual
protosexual
pseudosexual
psychosexual
quasisexual
robosexual
sapiosexual
schizosexual
sextual
sexual abuse
sexual act
sexual anorexia
sexual anorexic
sexual appetite
sexual assault
sexual cannibalism
sexual capital
sexual climax
sexual complex
sexual congress
sexual dichromatism
sexual dichronism
sexual dimorphism
sexual diversity
sexual division of labour
sexual dysfunction
sexual education
sexual favor
sexual favour
sexual fraternization
sexual harassment
sexual headache
sexual identity
sexual intercourse
sexual inversion
sexualism
sexualist
sexualistic
sexuality
sexualization
sexualize
sexual literacy
sexually
sexual majority
sexual marketplace
sexual market value
sexual maturity
sexual method
sexual mimicry
sexual minority
sexual misconduct
sexualness
sexualogy
sexual orientation
sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts
sexual orientation change efforts
sexual partner
sexual play
sexual politics
sexual predator
sexual preference
sexual reassignment
sexual reassignment surgery
sexual relation
sexual relations
sexual reproduction
sexual revolution
sexual selection
sexual slavery
sexual tension
sexual union
sexual violence
sociosexual
subsexual
supersexual
suprasexual
transsexual
trisexual
ubersexual
unisexual
unsexual
urethrosexual
urinosexual
vegansexual
xenosexual
zoosexual
Related terms: sex