hijra
noun
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.
hijra
1 American
[hij-ruh]
/ ˈhɪdʒ rə /
noun
-
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.
Hijra
2
American
[hij-ruh]
/ ˈhɪdʒ rə /
Also
Hijrah.
noun
(sometimes lowercase)
-
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.
hijra
British
/ ˈhɪdʒrə /
noun
Etymology
Origin of hijra1
First recorded in 1835–40; from Hindi: “eunuch, hermaphrodite”
Origin of Hijra2
From the Arabic word hijrah flight, departure
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The hijra holds such importance in the history of Islam that the Islamic lunar calendar counts 622 CE as its first year.
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
Transgenderism, intersex identity and the third gender, for example, have traditionally been a part of South Asian culture with the hijra or eunuch communities.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2021
Many readers will remember that Arundhati Roy explored the lives of hijra in her swirling 2017 novel, “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.”
From Washington Post ● Jun. 15, 2020
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
Corcoran told me that in Iowa last spring, she handed her book, ‘‘Refugee Resettlement and Hijra to America,’’ directly to Donald Trump.
From New York Times ● Jan. 20, 2016
The strong theological influence which asserted itself in the second century of the Hijra was unfavourable to the development of an Arabian prose literature on national lines.
From A Literary History of the Arabs by Reynold Nicholson
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.
