# gender

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈd͡ʒɛndə/ · frequency rank #2,539

## Definitions
1. Class; kind.
2. Sex (a category, either male or female, into which sexually-reproducing organisms are divided on the basis of their reproductive roles in their species).
3. Identification as a man, a woman, or something else, and association with a (social) role or set of behavioral and cultural traits, clothing, etc; a category to which a person belongs on this basis. (Compare gender role, gender identity.)
4. A division of nouns and pronouns (and sometimes of other parts of speech) into masculine or feminine, and sometimes other categories like neuter or common, and animate or inanimate.
5. Synonym of voice (“particular way of inflecting or conjugating verbs”).
6. The quality which distinguishes connectors, which may be male (fitting into another connector) and female (having another connector fit into it), or genderless or androgynous (capable of fitting together with another connector of the same type).

## Etymology
From Middle English gendre, borrowed from Old French gendre, borrowed from Latin genere (“type, kind”). Doublet of genre and genus. The verb developed after the noun.

## Easily confused with
- **gene** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-gene)
- **genre** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-genre)
- **genes** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-genes)
- **genie** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-genie)
- **ginger** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-ginger)
- **genera** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-genera)
- **Gunner** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-gunner)
- **grader** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-grader)
- **glider** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-glider)
- **Gerber** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-gerber)
- **getter** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-getter)
- **geyser** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-geyser)
- **Gunter** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-gunter)
- **girder** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-girder)
- **grinder** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-grinder)
- **Genders** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-genders)
- **gendered** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gender-vs-gendered)
- **Geiger** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/geiger-vs-gender)
- **Geller** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/geller-vs-gender)
- **gander** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gander-vs-gender)

## Common misspellings (9)
`egnder`, `gedner`, `gendder`, `genderr`, `gendre`, `genedr`, `gennder`, `ggender`, `gneder`

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