he/she

pronoun

ˈhē-ˈshē How to pronounce he/she (audio)
ˈhē-ər-;
ˈhē-ˈslash-
: he or she
—used as a pronoun of common gender

Word History

First Known Use

1963, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of he/she was in 1963

Dictionary Entries Near he/she

hesh

he/she

Heshvan

Cite this Entry

“He/she.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/he%2Fshe. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

Copy Citation

Share

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See All

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)

Absent Letters That Are Heard Anyway

How to Use Accents and Diacritical Marks
See All

Popular in Wordplay

See All

The Words of the Week - Apr. 19

10 Words from Taylor Swift Songs (Merriam's Version)

9 Superb Owl Words

10 Words for Lesser-Known Games and Sports

Your Favorite Band is in the Dictionary
See All

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Word Game You can make only 12 words. Pick the best ones!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
Missing Letter A crossword with a twist
winning words from the national spelling bee logo
Spelling Bee Quiz Can you outdo past winners of the National Spelli...