third gender

American  

[thurd jen-der] / ˈθɜrd ˈdʒɛn dər /

noun

1. Anthropology. any of various gender classifications in societies that recognize a gender other than male or female.

2. a person who identifies as a gender other than male or female or as neither male nor female.

---

adjective

1. being or relating to a person who belongs to a gender classification or identifies as a gender other than male or female.

Etymology

Origin of third gender

First recorded in 1820–30

Example Sentences

In 2014, the Supreme Court had ruled that trans people be recognised as the third gender.

From BBC • Jul. 27, 2023

For centuries Mexico's indigenous Zapotec people have recognized a third sex known as "muxes," a third gender that includes both masculine and feminine traits.

From Salon • May 22, 2023

“We’ve been around for millennia,” she told The Spinoff, citing long-established concepts of gender fluidity in Pacific nations, including fa’afafine, a Samoan word for people of a third gender.

From New York Times • Mar. 8, 2023

Sexual minorities across India have gained a degree of acceptance, especially in big cities, and transgender people were guaranteed equal rights as a third gender in 2014.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 3, 2022

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, writing in Germany in 1860, spoke of das dritte Geschlecht, the third gender.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides