Jump To:

• cis
  cis

  adjective

  cisgender or cissexual.
• cis-
  cis-

  a prefix occurring in loanwords from Latin meaning “on the near side of; on this side of” (cisalpine ); on this model, used in the formation of compound words (cisatlantic ).
• C.I.S.
  C.I.S.

  abbreviation

  Commonwealth of Independent States.
• CIS
  CIS

  abbreviation

  Commonwealth of Independent States

cis

¹ American  

[sis] / sɪs /

adjective

1. cisgender or cissexual.

   He may not be macho, but he's definitely a cis male.

---

noun

1. a person who is cisgender or cissexual.

cis- ² American  

1. a prefix occurring in loanwords from Latin meaning “on the near side of; on this side of” (cisalpine ); on this model, used in the formation of compound words (cisatlantic ).

2. Chemistry. a specialization of this denoting a geometric isomer having a pair of identical atoms or groups attached on the same side of two atoms linked by a double bond.

3. a prefix meaning “on the same side of,” referring to the alignment of one’s gender identity with one’s sex assigned at birth (cisgender; cissexual ).

---

C.I.S. ³ American  

abbreviation

1. Commonwealth of Independent States.

---

cis- ¹ British  

prefix

1. on this or the near side of

   cisalpine

2. (often in italics) indicating that two groups of atoms in an unsaturated compound lie on the same side of a double bond Compare trans-

   cis-butadiene

---

CIS ² British  

abbreviation

1. Commonwealth of Independent States

---

Sensitive Note

See trans, gender ¹.

Usage

What does cis mean? Cis is short for cissexual or, more commonly, cisgender, which refers to someone's gender identity that corresponds to their sex as assigned at birth. Cisgender is the opposite of transgender.

Etymology

Origin of cis¹

By shortening

Origin of cis-²

From Latin cis (adverb and preposition) “on this side, on this side of, within”

Example Sentences

"We can't say that GLP-1s are actually causing these symptoms," says Neil Sehgal, the study's first author and a doctoral student in CIS advised by Guntuku and Ungar.

From Science Daily • May 24, 2026

Liani added that Akamai’s cloud infrastructure services, or CIS, segment is at an inflection point with “momentum supported by AI workloads and edge inference use cases.”

From Barron's • May 13, 2026

Some companies import European cheese to Belarus or other CIS countries, where the label is swapped so that it can be sold legally in Russian shops.

From BBC • Nov. 10, 2024

In 2022, based on data from Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, more than 691,000 people received Russian citizenship, with nearly half coming from CIS countries.

From Reuters • Mar. 15, 2023

Its small and obsolescent industrial sector, concentrated around Bishkek, has traditionally relied on Russia and other CIS countries for customers and industrial inputs, including most of its fuel.

From The 1995 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency