Jacquelyn MitchardDinitia SmithTamar LewinEvelyn Anthony
Are gender and sex the same? Usage Guide
The words sex and gender have a long and intertwined history. In the 15th century gender expanded from its use as a term for a grammatical subclass to join sex in referring to either of the two primary biological forms of a species, a meaning sex has had since the 14th century; phrases like "the male sex" and "the female gender" are both grounded in uses established for more than five centuries. In the 20th century sex and gender each acquired new uses. Sex developed its "sexual intercourse" meaning in the early part of the century (now its more common meaning), and a few decades later gender gained a meaning referring to the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex, as in "gender roles." Later in the century, gender also came to have application in two closely related compound terms: gender identity refers to a person's internal sense of being male, female, some combination of male and female, or neither male nor female; gender expression refers to the physical and behavioral manifestations of one's gender identity. By the end of the century gender by itself was being used as a synonym of gender identity.
Among those who study gender and sexuality, a clear delineation between sex and gender is typically prescribed, with sex as the preferred term for biological forms, and gender limited to its meanings involving behavioral, cultural, and psychological traits. In this dichotomy, the terms male and female relate only to biological forms (sex), while the terms masculine/masculinity, feminine/femininity, woman/girl, and man/boy relate only to psychological and sociocultural traits (gender). This delineation also tends to be observed in technical and medical contexts, with the term sex referring to biological forms in such phrases as sex hormones, sex organs, and biological sex. But in nonmedical and nontechnical contexts, there is no clear delineation, and the status of the words remains complicated. Often when comparisons explicitly between male and female people are made, we see the term gender employed, with that term dominating in such collocations as gender differences, gender gap, gender equality, gender bias, and gender relations. It is likely that gender is applied in such contexts because of its psychological and sociocultural meanings, the word's duality making it dually useful. The fact remains that it is often applied in such cases against the prescribed use.
Usage of sex and gender is by no means settled. For example, while discrimination was far more often paired with sex from the 1960s through the 20th century and into the 21st, the phrase gender discrimination has been steadily increasing in use since the 1980s and is on track to become the dominant collocation. Currently both terms are sometimes employed with their intended synonymy made explicit: sex/gender discrimination, gender (sex) discrimination.
Synonyms
Examples of sex in a Sentence
Sandee Lamotte, CNN, 12 Apr. 2024
The following are the overall most common types of cancer for both sexes combined, though within the sexes there are notable differences.
—Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY, 4 Apr. 2024
For both sexes, workers aged 45-54 were most likely to be members of unions.
—Irina Ivanova, Fortune, 23 Jan. 2024
Colorectal cancer is third, overall, for both sexes.
—Erika Edwards, NBC News, 17 Jan. 2024
Autopsy studies also show that women seem to develop neuropathology linked to dementia more than men, but in Liu’s studies, detection rates were not dramatically different across sexes or age groups.
—WIRED, 13 Nov. 2023
As politics gets more divided between the sexes, maternity wards get quieter.
—Richard V. Reeves, TIME, 6 Apr. 2024
This indicates that Republicans want state law to recognize only biologically male and female sexes, rather than transgender identities.
—Kayla Dwyer, The Indianapolis Star, 12 Jan. 2024
Most espouse traditional views about the role of women and the sexes.
—Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, 1 Mar. 2024
Andrew Cunningham & Lee Hutchinson, Ars Technica, 1 Sep. 2023
Then in March, a different star naturally spawned and was sexed as male.
—City News Service, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Oct. 2023
All woodcock can be aged and sexed by looking at the characteristics of the wing.
—Matthew Every, Field & Stream, 18 Oct. 2023
But bring the kids anyway to this daftly sexed-up production.
—Los Angeles Times, 12 Sep. 2019
To make matters all the more thirsty, that poster’s genitalia-like woodlands surround a smooching couple who appear to be a sexed-up version of beastiality tale Beauty and The Beast.
—Ariana Romero, refinery29.com, 20 Jan. 2020
The preppy East Coast label has collaborated with everyone from Sacai and Supreme to Vetements, but West’s topper was a fresh foil for her typically sexed-up take on sportswear.
—Edward Barsamian, Vogue, 13 Dec. 2018
Yandy’s ark of offerings is evidence that pretty much any animal can be sexed up, although not all animals are equally alluring.
—Rachel Sugar, Vox, 26 Oct. 2018
The most sexed-up take on the look saw one guy swaggering down the runway like a cheeky gunslinger.
—Liana Satenstein, Vogue, 25 Sep. 2018
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sex.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near sex
Cite this Entry
“Sex.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sex. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
sex
1 of 2 nounJacquelyn MitchardDinitia SmithLois M. Verbruggesex
2 of 2 transitive verb
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