gender

noun gen·der \ ˈjen-dər \

Definition of gender

1 a :a subclass within a grammatical class (such as noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb) of a language that is partly arbitrary but also partly based on distinguishable characteristics (such as shape, social rank, manner of existence, or sex) and that determines agreement with and selection of other words or grammatical forms

b :membership of a word or a grammatical form in such a subclass

c :an inflectional form (see inflection 3a) showing membership in such a subclass

2 a :sex

the feminine gender

b :the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex

See gender defined for English-language learners

See gender defined for kids

Examples of gender in a Sentence

Please state your name, birth date, and gender.
The adjective and noun must agree in number and gender.
Some languages do not use genders.

Recent Examples of gender from the Web

The tournament features a variety of divisions based on gender and age.

— Post-Tribune, "Community news," 30 Aug. 2017
The results were divided along gender lines between technical and nontechnical careers.

— joy lanzendorfer, The Atlantic, "Why Aren’t There More Women Working in Audio?," 30 Aug. 2017
The celebrity singer Madonna would be a gender-worthy candidate.

— Cincinnati.com, "Column: Let’s just tear it all down," 30 Aug. 2017
But on Tuesday, University of Notre Dame gender studies and political science professor Christina Wolbrecht decided to debunk the claim on Twitter.

— lisa ryan, The Cut, "An Actual Gender Studies Professor Debunked That Viral Hurricane Harvey Tweet," 30 Aug. 2017
One of the reasons Shelley's book didn’t get better play was her gender.

— kat eschner, Smithsonian, "The Author of ‘Frankenstein’ Also Wrote a Post-Apocalyptic Plague Novel," 30 Aug. 2017
But Ivanka has been criticized for paying lip service to gender equality without doing much to further it.

— suzannah weiss, Glamour, "Ivanka Trump Supports Women Who Work—but Is Apparently Fine With Scrapping Equal Pay Legislation," 30 Aug. 2017
With the gender pay gap, with a persistent disparity between men and women political leaders and with a continuing reluctance to tap women for leadership roles in the private sector, the outside world lags behind East Wind.

— max londberg, kansascity, "Dark rituals? Orgies? See the reality of a hippie commune deep in Missouri’s Bible Belt," 27 Aug. 2017
The challenge comes as the Salk is coping with the fallout from three of its female professors filing lawsuits that accuse the institute of gender discrimination.

— gary robbins, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Salk faces 'daunting' need for money despite big success with donors," 25 Aug. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'gender.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.