# bisexual

> English word · Adjective · IPA /baɪˈsɛk.ʃʊ.əl/ · frequency rank #11,173

## Definitions
1. Sexually attracted to both opposite-sex and same-sex individuals. (Compare pansexual.)
2. Having both male and female parts, characteristics, or functions.
3. Having both male and female parts, characteristics, or functions.
4. Having both male and female parts, characteristics, or functions.
5. Having both male and female parts, characteristics, or functions.
6. Having both male and female parts, characteristics, or functions.
7. Having both male and female parts, characteristics, or functions.
8. Having two distinct sexes, male and female (as contrasted with unisexual or hermaphroditic).
9. Involving two sexes (particularly with regard to reproduction; contrast parthenogenetic or asexual).

## Etymology
From bi- + -sexual, via the French bisexuel (bi-, sexuel). Attested since 1792 as a synonym in botany for "hermaphroditic" ("having male and female parts"). First used of sexuality in Richard von Krafft-Ebing's 1886 Psychopathia Sexualis (in German) and Charles Gilbert Chaddock's 1892 English translation thereof, due to the theory that people were naturally attracted to the opposite sex and so the brain or mind of a person attracted to "both" sexes (or to the same sex) must be partly of another sex and thus "hermaphroditic".

## Common misspellings (11)
`bbisexual`, `biesxual`, `biseuxal`, `bisexaul`, `bisexuall`, `bisexula`, `bisexxual`, `bissexual`, `bisxeual`, `bsiexual`, `ibsexual`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/bisexual