Gender: Definition, Examples, and Common Uses (2 meaning)

Meaning 1：social identity (gender)

gender 🔊

/ˈdʒendə(r)/

A social and cultural idea about what it means to be a man or a woman, like roles, behaviors, and expectations set by society.

Gender as a social construct illustrated by contrasting modern and stereotypical workplace scenes.

social identity 🔊

➕

/ˈsəʊʃl aɪˈdɛntɪti/

The concept of being male, female, or another identity, based on social and cultural norms rather than just biological sex.

📁 Category：Social Roles 🔖 Level：Intermediate

📘 Details & Usage

📖 Root Explanation

From Latin 'genus', meaning 'kind' or 'type'.

💡 Mnemonic

Link 'gender' to 'general categories' of people or words.

📖 Example

Her school actively encourages students to pursue any career they want, regardless of traditional gender stereotypes. 🔊 Her school actively encourages students to pursue any career they want, regardless of traditional social identity stereotypes.

🔗 Collocations

gender equality – equal rights and opportunities for all genders

gender roles – socially expected behaviors for men and women

gender identity – a person's internal sense of their own gender

🔄 Synonyms

sex (n.) – often used interchangeably in social contexts, but technically refers to biological characteristics

identity (n.) – a broader term including personal and social aspects of self

🚫 Antonyms

agender (adj.) – not identifying with any gender

🌱 Derivatives

gendered (adj.) – relating to or specific to a particular gender

genderless (adj.) – not having or relating to gender

genderize (v.) – to assign or apply gender to something

📖 Cultural Story

The word entered English from Old French 'gendre', derived from Latin 'genus' (kind, type). Initially used for grammatical classification, its meaning expanded in the 20th century to encompass social and cultural identity.

Meaning 2：grammatical category (gender)

gender 🔊

/ˈdʒendə(r)/

In grammar, a system of classifying nouns, pronouns, or adjectives as masculine, feminine, or neuter in some languages.

Grammatical gender explained with a close-up of masculine and feminine articles in a language textbook.

grammatical category 🔊

➕

/ɡrəˈmætɪkl ˈkætəɡəri/

A classification system for nouns, pronouns, or adjectives into categories like masculine, feminine, or neuter in certain languages.

📁 Category：Language Evolution 🔖 Level：Elementary

📘 Details & Usage

📖 Example

When learning French, remembering the gender of every noun can be a challenge for beginners. 🔊 When learning French, remembering the grammatical category of every noun can be a challenge for beginners.

🔗 Collocations

grammatical gender – the gender classification of words in a language

gender agreement – the matching of gender between related words

masculine gender – the grammatical category for words considered male

🔄 Synonyms

noun class (n.) – a broader term for categorizing nouns, including gender systems