a person whose gender identity is neither male nor female, typically a person who was assigned male at birth but whose gender expression is female.
a person who is transgender.
the flight of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution a.d. 622: regarded as the beginning of the Muslim Era.
the Muslim Era itself.
First recorded in 1835–40; from Hindi: “eunuch, hermaphrodite”
From the Arabic word hijrah flight, departure
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This hijra, meaning “emigration,” was a watershed moment for Muhammad’s early community.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
Aruvi, a transgender person in Hyderabad, started a “transkitchen” with the help of three friends from the queer community, who cooked food and delivered it to the hijra community and other marginalized groups.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 8, 2022
Lovely is a hijra — part of an intersex community in South Asia that is both revered and reviled.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 15, 2020
She says her hope is that people will stop reacting negatively to the word hijra and start treating them as the "third sex".
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2014
To the heartbreak of Akshay Karande’s parents, their only son declared that he was a hijra at age 15.
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2013
In Pakistan and Bangladesh, some people identify as Hijra, which means they have both male and female traits.
From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2025
In Islamic history this move to Aksum became known as the first Hijra or migration.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2021
“Apart from providing us employment, the new job will also give us social recognition,” said Anita Hijra, a transgender person from Patna who spoke to the Guardian after returning from blessing a newborn baby.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 18, 2018
“Some call it Hijra Farsi and some call it Kothi Kiwal, but it’s the language that unites the whole community even today,” Ms. Mhaprolkar said.
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2013
The reasons for compiling this work are these, that in the year of the Hijra, 1215, A.D.
From Bagh O Bahar, or Tales of the Four Darweshes by Forbes, Duncan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
