Androgynous

//ænˈdɹɒd͡ʒ.ɪn.əs// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Possessing the sex organs of both sexes.
  2. 2
    Pertaining to a feature or characteristic that is not definitively of either sex.

    "Nicknames like Pat, Sam, and Chris are androgynous, used by both men and women."

  3. 3
    Possessing qualities of both sexes.

    "The truth is, a great mind must be androgynous."

  4. 4
    Of a connector or docking port, able to connect to another connector or port of the same type, rather than being restricted to connecting to solely male or solely female connectors or ports.

    "APAS is an androgynous docking system, so – in principle, at least – any APAS-equipped vehicle should be able to hook up with any other, without having to worry about matching male with female ports."

Adjective
  1. 1
    having both male and female characteristics wordnet
  2. 2
    relating to or exhibiting both female and male sex organs but with a predominantly female appearance wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
epiceneambigenderbisexualepicenegynandromorphoushermaphrodite

Example

More examples

"This teenage pop star has been described as androgynous."

Etymology

From Latin androgynus (“man-woman, hermaphrodite”), from Ancient Greek ἀνδρόγῠνος (andrógŭnos), from ἀνήρ (anḗr, “man”) + γῠνή (gŭnḗ, “woman”) + -ος (-os, “-ous”, adjectival suffix), equivalent to andro- + gyno- + -ous.

Related phrases

gender bendersex organ

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.