third sex

noun

"third-sex" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“third sex” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
9
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A third gender, a category of people who are not male or female, or whose sexual roles, anatomy, or identities place them outside of the established male and female categories.

Corpus desk

Index EN-third-sex · third sex · English

third sex · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "T" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for third sex
PropertyValue
Headwordthird sex
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “third sex” in English

third sexranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

third sex is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for third sex in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is third sex, spelled T-H-I-R-D- -S-E-X.

Definition

  1. 1
    A third gender, a category of people who are not male or female, or whose sexual roles, anatomy, or identities place them outside of the established male and female categories.
  2. 2
    Gay people.
  3. 3
    The clergy, the priesthood (seen as emasculate or not participating in sex).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how third sex appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The words of St. Paul in Cor. vii., of Our Lord in Mat. xix., concerning the third sex of the eunuchs, and of St. John in Apoc. xiv., […]
  2. In her book entitled Neither Man nor Woman, Serena Nanda gives a fascinating account of the hijras of India. Hijras are India's third sex.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "third sex"?
"third sex" is spelled T-H-I-R-D- -S-E-X.
What does "third sex" mean?
As a noun, "third sex" means: A third gender, a category of people who are not male or female, or whose sexual roles, anatomy, or identities place them outside of the established male and female categories.
What language does "third sex" come from?
"third sex" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list