Two-spirit
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A Native North American bisexual, homosexual, or gender-variant person; especially one belonging to a traditional tribal third-gender, fourth-gender, or transgender cultural category that has a ceremonial role. Canada, US
"The Lakota, by the way, called their Two-Spirits winkte and wapetokeca which means "people with special powers.""
- 1 Involving two spirits; especially, pertaining to the doctrine of dualism espoused in the so-called Treatise on the Two Spirits in the Dead Sea Scrolls. not-comparable
"Paul's grasp of the [Holy] Spirit as the sign of the erupting messianic age is at odds with the two-spirit thought of Qumran which never became incompatible with law observance."
- 2 Of, pertaining to, or being a two-spirit (noun sense). Canada, US, not-comparable
"A Hupa two-spirit male told me: / I was real feminine as a child, from as early as I can remember. […] Within the family, Indians believe you can be whatever you choose."
Example
More examples"Paul's grasp of the [Holy] Spirit as the sign of the erupting messianic age is at odds with the two-spirit thought of Qumran which never became incompatible with law observance."
Etymology
PIE word *dwóh₁ From two + spirit.
The noun is derived from two + spirit, coined in 1990 at the Third Annual Inter-tribal Native American, First Nations, Gay and Lesbian American Conference held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, based on Ojibwe niizh manidoowag (“two spirits”) (coined at the same conference), from niizh (“two”) + manidoo (“spirit”) + -wag (suffix denoting the third-person plural of an animate noun); the term was created to replace berdache in anthropological literature which was considered offensive. The adjective is derived from the noun.
Related phrases
More for "two-spirit"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.