transgender definition

English transgender definition

Alternative forms

• xgender (abbreviation)
• trans-gender

Etymology

1974,^[1] from trans- +‎ gender. The term transgenderism was used by John F. Oliven in 1965^[2][3][4] and the terms transgender, transgenderal, transgendered, transgenderist, and similar terms arose in the decades after this;^[4] the term transgender had acquired its current senses by the 1990s (by which time it had also largely displaced the earlier term transsexual; see usage notes).^[5]

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /tɹænzˈd͡ʒɛn.dɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tɹanzˈd͡ʒɛn.də/
• Rhymes: -ɛndə(ɹ)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

transgender (not comparable)

1. Having a gender (identity) which is different from one's assigned sex, or pertaining to a person who does (a trans man, trans woman, or someone non-binary, e.g. agender, bigender, or third-gender).

   Coordinate terms: transsexual, nonbinary, genderqueer

   • 1979 January/December 1978, J.J., “The Fellowship Family”, in In Unity, The Gay Christian‎^[6], Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, page 23, column 2:

     We have taken to the local radio station, to talk about transgender problems. Carol Fremont is working in this area, and by General Conference we should have some interesting insights and understandings to share regarding transgender persons.

   • 1979, Nancy, “Feather Your Own Nest”, in Transvestia‎^[7], volume XVII, number 98, Chevalier Publications, →LCCN, archived from the original on 2023-06-19, pages 36–37:

     After having lived much of our lives according to a socially accepted prescription, many of us come to realize that we have not been true to ourselves. As full-time or part-time transgenderists, we feel the need to improve the quality of life for ourselves by creating an environment around us which is compatible with the kind of life style we wish to achieve. […]
     While looking for a change of apartments, I walked into the rental office of a large complex, looked at the models and then proceeded to tell the manager about myself ... my work, my hobbies, and, yes, even my transgender lifestyle ... but all in a very matter-of-fact and self-confident manner. The result was total acceptance. In fact, they invited me to return as Nancy to the Halloween party they were holding that same evening ... and I did!

   • 1989, Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Christine Roberts, “Sex, Sexuality, Gender, and Gender Variance”, in Sandra Morgen, editor, Gender and Anthropology: Critical Reviews for Research and Teaching‎^[8], Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 455:

     transgender—an individual who lives as a person of a gender different from the one society defines for that person’s sex (e.g., male "transvestites" who wear women’s clothing, hair styles and other body accoutrements, use "feminine" speech and body language, and identify with the gender category woman). Also sometimes referred to as "cross-gendered people" (Blackwood 1984).

   • 2010 March 3, Jessica Green, “I'm sorry, I'm not lesbian”, in The Guardian:

     One head of a small gay charity visibly flinched when I mentioned my boyfriend and has been cold towards me ever since. I've even caught someone staring down my top to see if I'm transgender.

   • 2010 April 7, Natasha Lennard, “City Room”, in New York Times:

     But the inclusion of the word “trannie” — a pejorative, in some circles — in the title, and the film’s parodic representation of transgender women, has offended many people.

   • 2017 July 27, Emily Rauhala, “Transgender Chinese man wins first-of-its-kind labor discrimination case”, in The Washington Post‎^[9], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 November 2017, WorldViews‎^[10]:

     A Chinese court on Thursday found that a transgender man was unjustly fired from his job, a first-of-its-kind ruling that activists called a step forward in the fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. […]
     Mr. C, a transgender Chinese man who says he was fired for wearing men's clothes, stands outside a court in Guiyang, China, July 27, 2017, holding the court’s ruling that his dismissal violated his employment rights.

   • 2023 February 6, Stefan Dege, Louisa Schaefer, “Kim Petras: How the trans artist made history”, in Deutsche Welle‎^[11], archived from the original on 2023-03-30‎^[12]:

     When Kim Petras teamed up with English singer Sam Smith on "Unholy," a song about male infidelity and betrayal of the ideal of marriage, she may not have expected to make history.
     But now, the German pop singer Petras is the first transgender woman to win a coveted Grammy in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category.
     At the Grammy Awards on February 5, 2023, Petras thanked "transgender legends before me who kicked these doors open for me so that I could be here tonight." […]
     Back in October 2022, the duo Petras and Smith had already become the first publicly transgender and nonbinary solo artists, respectively, to have reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts with their single.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:transgender.
   1. (narrowly; see usage notes) Having a gender (identity) which is opposite from the sex one was assigned at birth:^[1] being assigned male but having a female gender, or vice versa (i.e., not including non-binary).
      • 1988, Merissa Sherrill Lynn, “Definitions of Terms Commonly Used in the Transvestite-Transsexual Community”, in The TV-TS Tapestry‎^[13], number 51, International Foundation for Gender Education, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 22:

        Gender identity is whether or not a person perceives him/herself to be a man or woman (see ‘man’ and ‘woman’). The problem arises when a male perceives himself to be a woman, and vise versa^{[sic – meaning vice versa]}. Notice I said man or woman, and not male or female. The difference is important. Male and female are biological terms, while man and woman as they are used here are modes of being, ways to be, which are based on psychology and sociology rather than biology. (see ‘gender dysphoria’)
        Sexual identity is a ‘transsexual’ issue and may involve sexual re-assignment surgery, but may not involve cross-dressing. Gender identity is a ‘transgender’ issue and does not involve surgery, but almost always involves cross-dressing.

      • 1990, Louis Sullivan, “Epilogue”, in From Female to Male: The Life of Jack Bee Garland‎^[14], Boston: Alyson Publications, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 174:

        What is happening in the world at the time, restrictions or freedom in sex-role choices, or in access to clothing fabrics and styles — none of these have much influence on the transgender person’s desire to be the opposite sex.

      • 2015 August 29, Ben Machell, “The transgender kids”, in The Times‎^[15], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 March 2023‎^[16]:

        She emphasises that being transgender really has nothing to do with your anatomy. There are terms for individuals who have undergone sex reassignment surgery – “transexed”, for example – whereas to be transgender is simply to have the conviction that you are the opposite gender to the body you have been assigned.

      • 2018, Michael S. Gazzaniga, “Human Development”, in Psychological Science‎^[17], 6th edition, W. W. Norton, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 367:

        Biology has a strong effect on whether people identify as female, male, or transgender. A transgender person was born as one biological sex but feels that her true gender identity is that of the other sex. One theory of why gender and biological sex differ for those who are transgender has to do with timing of hormonal events during pregnancy.

      • 2018 June 19, “Transgenderism no longer a mental illness: WHO”, in France 24‎^[18], archived from the original on 2018-06-19‎^[19]:

        Transgender people, who identify as the opposite gender to the one they were born with, should no longer be considered mentally ill, according to a new UN categorisation.
        The World Health Organization issued a new catalogue Monday covering 55,000 diseases, injuries and causes of death, in which it discreetly recategorised transgenderism. […]
        Several countries have already taken steps to reclassify transgenderism and take it off the list of mental disorders, including France and Denmark.
        Say said she thought the text, which is the result of years of discussion among experts, would easily win approval, despite widespread lack of acceptance of transgender people in many parts of the world.

      • 2022 March, Florian Kurth, Christian Gaser, Francisco J. Sánchez, Eileen Luders, “Brain Sex in Transgender Women Is Shifted towards Gender Identity”, in Journal of Clinical Medicine‎^[20], volume 11, number 6, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-07-25, Abstract‎^[21]:

        Transgender people report discomfort with their birth sex and a strong identification with the opposite sex. The current study was designed to shed further light on the question of whether the brains of transgender people resemble their birth sex or their gender identity. For this purpose, we analyzed a sample of 24 cisgender men, 24 cisgender women, and 24 transgender women before gender-affirming hormone therapy. We employed a recently developed multivariate classifier that yields a continuous probabilistic (rather than a binary) estimate for brains to be male or female. The brains of transgender women ranged between cisgender men and cisgender women (albeit still closer to cisgender men), and the differences to both cisgender men and to cisgender women were significant (p = 0.016 and p < 0.001, respectively). These findings add support to the notion that the underlying brain anatomy in transgender people is shifted away from their biological sex towards their gender identity.

      • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:transgender.
2. (loosely, inexact) Transgressing or not identifying with culturally conventional gender roles and categories of male or female.

   Coordinate terms: gender-nonconforming, genderplay, genderfuck

   • 1992, Maximum rocknroll, number 109:

     I think the new punk rockers are going to be more androgynous, more bisexual, more transgender, more ethnically diverse and less willing to take shit than ...

   • 1998 February 20, John Cloud, “Trans across America”, in Time:

     Their first step was to reclaim the power to name themselves: transgender is now the term most widely used, and it encompasses everyone from cross-dressers (those who dress in clothes of the opposite sex) to transsexuals (those who surgically "correct" their genitals to match their "real" gender).

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:transgender.
3. (of a space) Intended primarily for transgender people.
   • 2001, Walter O. Bockting, Sheila Kirk, Transgender and HIV: Risks, Prevention, and Care, page 46:

     In Boston, no AIDS prevention messages are posted at the primary drag queen and transgender bar.

   • 2011, Connie Emerson, Top 10 Las Vegas, →ISBN:

     The Las Vegas Lounge is the city's only transgender bar.

   • 2013, Norbert Paxton, The Rough Guide to Korea, →ISBN:

     Trance A thriving transgender bar on the main Itaewon drag, […]

   • 2022 August 30, William Yen, “Filipino dancer decodes beauty pageants and their colonial roots”, in Focus Taiwan‎^[22], archived from the original on 03 September 2022, Culture‎^[23]:

     Belgium-based Filipino dancer Joshua Serafin’s performance later this week at the Taipei Arts Festival explores transgender beauty pageants from the Philippines and the politics, culture and hidden colonial past behind the industry, the artist said Tuesday.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:transgender.
4. (of a space) Available for use by transgender people, rather than only non-transgender people.
   • 2002 October 2, Boston Globe, Group wants transgender bathrooms for UMASS, quoted in 2010, Sheila L. Cavanagh, Queering Bathrooms →ISBN
   • 2010, Harvey Molotch, Laura Noren, Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing, page 199:

     Why the sudden outcry for transgender bathrooms?

   • 2013, William Keith, Christian O. Lundberg, Public Speaking: Choice and Responsibility:

     In contrast, in a democratic conversation or dialogue, the speaker would begin by identifying the larger public issues that connect to the availability of transgender bathrooms: equality, civil rights, […]

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:transgender.
5. Crossgender. [from mid 20th c.]
   • 1967 March, John P. Leary, “Woman in American Society Today”, in Thought: A Review of Culture and Idea‎^[24], volume XLII, number 164, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 116:

     Of course some unhappiness is simply a transgender phenomenon. Realists learn to expect a day in which perhaps 40 to 80 per cent is made up of repetition of what was done the day before and the day before that. Any set of normal days with over 20 per cent of excitement in them would be extraordinary. Consequently, the mere fact of being human, whether male or female, requires endurance, tolerance, a sense of moderate wholesome expectations.

   • 1982, Sara Ruddick, “Maternal Thinking”, in Rethinking the Family: Some Feminist Questions‎^[25], →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 91:

     Unless we have identified "male" and "female" aspects of thought, however, the claim of gender bias is an empty one. I do not doubt that disciplines are also shaped by transgender interests, values, and concepts, which women, whether or not they engage in maternal practices, may fully share.

   • 1984, Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, “Conclusion: The Feminist Movement and the Conditions of Reproductive Freedom”, in Abortion and Woman's Choice: The State, Sexuality, and Reproductive Freedom‎^[26], →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 391:

     Unlike capitalism, under socialist transformation there is a normative basis for maintaining the principle of collective (transgender) responsibility in the activity of reproduction and childrearing, as in everything else.

   • 1988, Tara Jones, “Against Toxic Capital”, in Corporate Killing: Bhopals Will Happen‎^[27], Free Association Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 273:

     Not only do men share in the responsibility for children - but also, toxic chemicals that affect women’s reproductive health do not bypass the male reproductive system. In Bhopal, for example, impotence and loss of libido were reported among a large proportion of exposed males. Reproductive effects are a transgender issue that men as well as women should address.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:transgender.

Usage notes

• The term transgender was popularized in the 1970s,^[1][6] and by the 1990s it had largely displaced the older term transsexual.^[5][7] (Transsexual is now often considered outdated^[6] although some people still prefer it; see its entry for more. Neither term should be confused with transvestite; see that entry for more.) Transgender is an umbrella term, encompassing trans men and trans women, and often also encompassing nonbinary people;^[8] using transgender to refer strictly to people with a binary gender identity might be considered offensive and exclusionary towards non-binary people.
• For the usage of this word (and similar adjectives) as a noun, see below.

Synonyms

• T* (abbreviated form)
• TG (abbreviated form)
• trans (abbreviated form)
• trans* (abbreviated form, broad sense)
• transgendered (uncommon, now offensive)

Antonyms

• cisgender

Hypernyms

• LGBT

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• → Catalan: transgènere (calque)
• → Dutch: transgender
• → French: transgenre (calque)
• → German: transgender
• → Japanese: トランスジェンダー (toransujendā)
• → Korean: 트랜스젠더 (teuraenseujendeo)

Translations

Noun

transgender (usually uncountable, plural transgenders)

1. (countable, now often offensive) A transgender person.
   • 2005, Walter Bockting, Eric Avery, Transgender Health and HIV Prevention, page 116:

     In a patriarchal society in which machismo rules, MTF transgenders represent a challenge to traditional masculinity due to their renouncing of the male position of social power.

   • 2006, Jayne Caudwell, Sport, Sexualities and Queer/theory, page 122:

     Individual transgenders could compete in any division; however, transgender teams could not play against biological women's teams.

   • 2014, Sheila Jeffreys, Gender Hurts, page 70:

     This public presentation of the mutilation of the penis is not obviously very different from the forms of disassembly of the penis engaged in by male body modifiers – particularly nullos and transgenders – on the Body Modification Ezine website.

   • 2015, Helen Davies, “Transgender woman forced to move house after death threats and knife in her front door”, in The Liverpool Echo:

     Nat spent years being victimised as a male to female transgender but was too scared to report it.

2. (uncountable, rare) Transgenderism; the state of being transgender. (Compare transsex.)
   • 2004 June 10, Leslie Feinberg, “The love that dared to speak its name”, in Workers World‎^[28]:

     It documented literary, cross-cultural, cross-historical and scientific studies on same-sex love and transgender.

   • 2007, Alison Stone, An Introduction to Feminist Philosophy, →ISBN, page 41:

     Before we can answer this question, we need to consider two other phenomena – transsex and transgender – which also expose the muddle within conventional categories of sex.

Usage notes

• In Western countries, many transgender people consider the use of transgender (and similar adjectives) as a noun to be offensive, and several guides advise against such usage.^{[9][10][11][12]} "A transgender man" (for a man who was assigned the female sex at birth) or "a transgender woman" (for the reverse) is frequently more appropriate.

Hypernyms

• LGBT

Coordinate terms

• two-spirit, berdache
• hijra

Translations

Verb

transgender (third-person singular simple present transgenders, present participle transgendering, simple past and past participle transgendered)

1. (uncommon) To change the gender of; (used loosely) to change the sex of. (Compare transsex.)
   • 2005, Sue Tolleson-Rinehart, Jyl J. Josephson, Gender and American Politics, →ISBN, pages 15 and 205:

     […] and one that is still dominated by male nominees, women nominees might be seen as either contributing to the regendering, or the transgendering, of the Cabinet.
     […]
     This chapter examines women secretaries-designate in terms of their contributions to regendering or transgendering a cabinet office, to a gender desegregation or integration of the cabinet.

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:transgender.

Usage notes

• In Western countries, many transgender people consider the use of transgender (and similar adjectives) as a verb in reference to transgender individuals to be offensive, much the same as its use as a noun.^[11] "A transgender man" (for a man who was assigned the female sex at birth) or "a transgender woman" (for a woman who was assigned the male sex at birth) is frequently more appropriate.

Related terms

See also

• LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBTQIA
• crossdress; drag
• SRS
• intersex
• acault
• sworn virgin

References

Afrikaans transgender definition

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

transgender

1. transgender

Dutch transgender definition

Etymology

Borrowed from English transgender. See also gender.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈtrɑns.ɣɛn.dər/, /ˈtrɑns.dʒɛn.dər/
• Hyphenation: trans‧gen‧der

Adjective

transgender (invariable, not comparable)

1. transgender

Noun

transgender m or f (plural transgenders)

1. A transgender person.

See also

• transseksueel

German transgender definition

Etymology

Borrowed from English transgender.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʁansˈdʒɛndɐ/

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

transgender (indeclinable, predicative only)

1. transgender

   Coordinate terms: transgeschlechtlich, transsexuell, transident

   • 2021 September 24, Julika Kott, “Onlinemagazin von trans Frauen: Ein Gegenschlag”, in Die Tageszeitung: taz‎^[29], →ISSN:

     Auf Youtube, Instagram und Twitter schreibt und spricht die Redaktion etwa über vergessene trans Personen aus der Geschichte, trans Rechte und Transphobie. In der Redaktion von XY Média in Paris sind alle 18 Mitarbeitenden transgender.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

Indeclinable, predicative-only.

Further reading

• “transgender” in Duden online
• “transgender” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache