ambisexual

[ am-bi-sek-shoo-uhl ]

adjective

1. bisexual ( defs 1, 3 ).

ambisexual

/ ˌæmbɪˈsɛksjʊəl /

adjective

1. biology relating to or affecting both the male and female sexes
2. Alsoambosexual bisexual

Other Words From

• ambi·sexu·ali·ty noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of ambisexual¹

First recorded in 1935–40; ambi- + sexual

Example Sentences

As far back as 1969, classic sci-fi author Ursula K. LeGuin published "The Left Hand of Darkness," which explored a race of people who are by default androgynous until they are revealed to be also ambisexual, shifting genders from either male of female depending on environmental conditions.

From Salon

“Your race is appallingly alone in its world. No other mammalian species. No other ambisexual species. No animal intelligent enough even to domesticate as pets. It must color your thinking, this uniqueness. I don’t mean scientific thinking only, though you are extraordinary hypothesizers—it’s extraordinary that you arrived at any concept of evolution, faced with that unbridgeable gap between yourselves and the lower animals. But philosophically, emotionally: to be so solitary, in so hostile a world: it must affect your entire outlook.”

From Literature

She was best known for the Earthsea series, written for young adults, and The Left Hand of Darkness, set on a planet where everyone is ambisexual.

From BBC

They can be ambisexual, nonmonogamous—even, as Frances claims to be, largely unemotional.

From Slate

As an anthropologist sent to investigate humanity’s ambisexual descendants notes, while the social changes of gender fluidity seem small on the surface, in reality they are “incalculable.”

From Salon