Dioecious

//daɪ̯ˈiːʃəs// adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having the male and female reproductive organs on separate plants (of the same species) rather than different parts of the same plant. not-comparable

    "Most plants are hermaphrodite, even if some of them (hazel, for example) keep their male and female flowers apart. But some plants are dioecious, i.e. they have separate sexes. Some of our most familiar wild plants, such as nettle and red campion, are dioecious. If your holly never has any berries, that's probably because it's a male."

  2. 2
    Having two distinct sexes. not-comparable, rare
Adjective
  1. 1
    having male and female reproductive organs in separate plants or animals wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
dioeciandioicusgonochoristic

Example

More examples

"Most plants are hermaphrodite, even if some of them (hazel, for example) keep their male and female flowers apart. But some plants are dioecious, i.e. they have separate sexes. Some of our most familiar wild plants, such as nettle and red campion, are dioecious. If your holly never has any berries, that's probably because it's a male."

Etymology

From di- + -oecious.

Related phrases

reproductive organ

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