Dictionary

intersex en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈɪn.təɹ.sɛks/ (General-American)
• /ˈɪn.tə.sɛks/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (US) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from German Intersexe. By surface analysis, inter- + sex. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Needs more details, especially the German etymology.”) Doublet of intersect.

Meanings

1. (not-comparable) Of an individual, having any of a variety of inherent conditions (in a species with distinct sexes) in which one's sex characteristics differ from those of a typical male and female; for example, having sex characteristics relating to both male and female sexes.
   • His confidentiality was broken, and soon the entire staff and residential population were aware that Jim was intersex. […] we faced the fact that most programs were gender segregated and would not be a safe place for Jim to be known as intersex. 2006, Dean Spade, “Compliance Is Gendered: Struggling for Gender Self-Determination in a Hostile Economy”, in Paisley Currah et al., editors, Transgender Rights, University of Minnesota Press, →ISBN, page 225:
   • A survey of 1100 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people by Griffith and Bond University researchers found that the overwhelming majority had been victims of targeted harassment as well as physical and sexual abuse. 2010 June 3, The Age:
   • When I had learned that I was intersex, I brought this issue to my mother. 2010, Sean Saifa Wall, “I am the ‘I’”, in Kate Bornstein, S. Bear Bergman, editors, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, Seal Press, →ISBN, page 109:

Antonyms

perisex · dyadic · endosex

Deriveds

intersexuality · interphobic · intersexphobic · intersexed · intersexism · interphobia · intersexphobia

Descendants

インターセックス

Synonyms

hermaphroditic · X · pseudohermaphrodite · hermaphrodite · intersexual · pseudohermaphroditic · indeterminate · intersexed

Translations (29)

pt intersexo (having an intersex condition) · ga idirghnéasach (having an intersex condition) · ru интерсексуа́льный (having an intersex condition) · cy rhyngrywiol (having an intersex condition) · pt intersexual (having an intersex condition) · de intersexuell (having an intersex condition) · fi kaksineuvoinen (having an intersex condition) · hu interszex (having an intersex condition) · ca intersexe (having an intersex condition) · pl obojnacka (having an intersex condition) · es intersexual (having an intersex condition) · id interseks (having an intersex condition) · hy ինտերսեքս (having an intersex condition) · bn আন্তঃলিঙ্গ (having an intersex condition) · ar ثُنَائِيّ الْجِنْس (having an intersex condition) · fr intersexué (having an intersex condition) · eo interseksa (having an intersex condition) · ja インターセックス (having an intersex condition) · nl interseks (having an intersex condition) · nl interseksueel (having an intersex condition) · bcl buraybuto (having an intersex condition) · gl intersexual (having an intersex condition) · eo ambaŭseksa (having an intersex condition) · lv interseksuāla (having an intersex condition) · de intergeschlechtlich (having an intersex condition) · pl obojnacki (having an intersex condition) · fr intersexe (having an intersex condition) · gd eadar-ghnèitheach (having an intersex condition) · ca intersexual (having an intersex condition)

intersex en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈɪn.təɹ.sɛks/ (General-American)
• /ˈɪn.tə.sɛks/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (US) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from German Intersexe. By surface analysis, inter- + sex. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Needs more details, especially the German etymology.”) Doublet of intersect.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) The condition of being intersex; intersexuality.
   • A Canadian believes that he has solved the diagnostic problem in human intersex. All human cells, says Dr. Murray L. Barr of the University of Western Ontario, contain something called sex chromatin. 1953 February 23, Time:
   • A much more common condition caused by early exposure of fish larvae to oestrogenic substances is intersex, which in males usually takes the form of ovotestis. 2003, Andrew J Lawrence et al., Effects of Pollution on Fish, page 204:
2. (countable) An individual with any of these conditions.
   • Goldschmidt and others who have thought of the homosexual individual as an intersex have relied upon incidence figures which were pure guesses and which, as the data in the present chapter will show, bear little relation to the fact.... 1948, Alfred Kinsey with Wardell Baxter Pomeroy and Clyde Eugene Martin, Sexual behavior in the human male, page 659:
   • Kubick also did not specifically include intersex people in the class of those seeking X gender markers, writing in her opinion that because the only Orr v. Trump plaintiffs seeking X gender markers were endosex nonbinary people, it was “not clear that non-binary class representatives could fully represent the interests of intersex class members.” 2025 June 18, Samantha Riedel, “In Trans Legal Victory, Federal Judge Blocks Trump Admin From Denying Passport Gender Changes”, in Them:
   • Conversely, a fertilized egg with one X-chromosome would develop not into a male but into an intersex […] 1955, Curt Stern, Principles of Human Genetics, page 374:
   • Genital surgery on intersexes has been performed for about a century 2003, Peggy Tine Cohen-Kettenis with Friedemann Pfäfflin, Transgenderism and intersexuality in childhood and adolescence, page 155:
   • An intersex, then, is an animal that shows both male and female characteristics. 2009, Mary C Smith, David Sherman, Goat Medicine, page 609:
   • Pseudo-hermaphrodites or other intersexes are not to be confused with transsexualists; transvestites may be transsexualists, but not necessarily. 1970, Sexology, volume 37, page 26:
3. (countable, uncountable) A person who can get pregnant and also impregnate someone else.

Forms

Translations (24)

ru интерсексуа́л (individual) · fi kaksineuvoinen (individual) · de Intersexueller (individual) · gl intersexual (individual) · ne अन्तरलिङ्गी (individual) · eo ambaŭseksulo (individual) · es intersexual (individual) · ca intersexe (individual) · eo interseksulo (individual) · ru интерсексуа́лка (individual) · cmn 雙性人 /双性人 (individual) · fr intersexuée (individual) · nl interseksueel (individual) · pt pessoa intersexo (individual) · fr intersexué (individual) · new त्यामज्यू यचिं (individual) · pl osoba interpłciowa (individual) · ja 半陰陽者 (individual) · de Intersexuelle (individual) · pt intersexual (individual) · de Intersex-Person (individual) · el ίντερσεξ (individual) · nl interseks (individual) · cmn 間性人 /间性人 (individual)

intersex en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈɪn.təɹ.sɛks/ (General-American)
• /ˈɪn.tə.sɛks/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (US) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from German Intersexe. By surface analysis, inter- + sex. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Needs more details, especially the German etymology.”) Doublet of intersect.

Meanings

1. (nonstandard) To make intersex.
   • The point is significant in light of current political issues surrounding real intersexed individuals. [...] It is clearly the case that physical intersexing and psychological androgyny do not conform to sex and gender norms in society. [...] 2013, Patrick Colm Hogan, Ulysses and the Poetics of Cognition, →ISBN, page 176:

Forms

Relateds

bigender · ambigender · androgynous · pseudohermaphroditism · hermaphroditism

Synonyms

intersexualize

Translations (2)

pt intersexualizar (to make intersex) · pl uprawiać seks z osobą interpłciową (to make intersex)