Gender Identity Guide: 15 Gender Identity Terms Defined

Gender identity is a person’s sense or personal understanding of their own gender, which may or may not correlate with their assigned gender at birth, gender expression, sexual orientation, sexual attraction, or the particular gender roles or traditional gender binary of their society. Many gender variants make up the gender spectrum, such as male, female, agender, bigender, transgender, femme, intersex, and gender fluid.

There are hundreds of terms that people use to describe their gender identity. However, the experience of gender is usually very personal and may not necessarily align with exact definitions or common usage around gender norms. Some people may self-identify with several terms at once, not have a strong preference about which particular term others use, or explore new terms as they develop until they find one that feels comfortable. In general, here are the most common terms used to describe gender identity:

1. 1. Agender: Agender refers to a person who doesn’t identify with any gender identity, often preferring gender-neutral pronouns such as they.
2. 2. Androgyne: A person whose gender expression incorporates both masculine and feminine elements. Androgyne can also describe either gender expression or gender identity.
3. 3. Bigender: A person who identifies with both female and male genders. A bigender person may express two genders simultaneously or fluctuates between two genders.
4. 4. Cisgender: A person whose gender identity matches the gender assigned to them at birth, usually based on their biological sex.
5. 5. Genderfluid: A person whose gender identity is not fixed and changes over time. Genderfluid people can identify with different genders at different times or a combination of genders at once.
6. 6. Gender-nonconforming: An umbrella term that describes anyone whose gender expression or identity does not align with traditional societal expectations.
7. 7. Genderqueer: An umbrella term for a person who doesn’t identify with a single gender identity. This term overlaps with non-binary and can also describe anyone who is not cisgender.
8. 8. Intergender: A person whose expression and identity falls between genders or combines genders.
9. 9. Intersex: A person born with ambiguously gendered bodies due to chromosome anomalies or ambiguous genitalia. Intersex people often receive a gender assignment at birth through medical intervention, which may or may not correspond to the gender they identify with as they age.
10. 10. Omnigender: A person who identifies as a mixture of several genders or as all genders simultaneously, including ones outside the traditional male-female binary. Pangender is another term for omnigender.
11. 11. Non-binary: A person who doesn’t fall under the traditional male-female binary. A non-binary person may identify as both male and female, or neither.
12. 12. Questioning: A person who is in the process of exploration or discovery regarding their gender expression or identity.
13. 13. Transgender: A person whose gender identity doesn’t match their assigned sex at birth (often shortened to “trans” or listed with their affirmed gender, e.g., “trans woman” or “trans man”). Some transgender people choose to undergo hormonal treatments or surgeries to match their gender identity, but others do not.
14. 14. Transsexual: An older term sometimes used to describe a person who has chosen to undergo hormonal treatments or anatomical surgeries to match their gender identity. While some people identify with this term, others find it offensive or outdated because of how the medical community historically used the label.
15. 15. Two-spirit: A broad term that some Indigenous North Americans use to describe people in their community who identify as having both a masculine and feminine spirit. Two-spirit can describe gender expression and/or sexual identity.

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