bisexual
Americanadjective
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noting or relating to a person who is sexually or romantically attracted to people of more than one gender, sometimes understood to include attraction to one's own sex or gender and at least one other sex or gender.
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Biology.
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of both biological sexes.
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combining male and female organs in one individual.
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noun
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a person who is sexually or romantically attracted to people of more than one gender, sometimes understood to include attraction to one's own sex or gender and at least one other sex or gender.
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Biology. an animal or plant that has the reproductive organs of both biological sexes.
adjective
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sexually attracted by both men and women
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showing characteristics of both sexes
a bisexual personality
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(of some plants and animals) having both male and female reproductive organs
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of or relating to both sexes
noun
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a bisexual organism; a hermaphrodite
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a bisexual person
Sensitive Note
As with many other labels used to describe people, the adjective form ( a bisexual author ) is preferred over the noun form. The noun, while sometimes acceptable in the plural (a flag designed for bisexuals ), is often less acceptable in the singular ( a bisexual I work with), especially when not used for self-reference.
Commonly Confused
Bisexual is sometimes interpreted to mean romantic, emotional, or sexual attraction to exactly two genders, often but not always men and women. However, since at least the 1990s, many bisexual people have been using definitions that acknowledge attraction to more than two genders, including people who do not fit into the gender binary. For some speakers, the bi- in bisexual refers to a gender or genders that are the same as or similar to their own, and a gender or genders that are different from their own. For others, the bi- in bisexual is simply an etymological quirk, like the octo- in October, which is no longer the eighth month. The debate over the definition of bi- also extends to related labels such as pansexual and omnisexual. Pansexual, for example, is sometimes defined as attraction regardless of gender, and omnisexual as attraction to any gender but not regardless of gender. However, bisexual, pansexual, and omnisexual can all be accurately used to describe a person who is attracted to men, women, and other genders, and some speakers use these words interchangeably. Many factors may be involved in a person's choice of which label to use for their sexuality.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bisexual
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.
It’s apparently an acronym for Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, with the + covering anybody who feels left out.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 17, 2025
Supreme Court decision holding that the the Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston could not force St. Patrick’s Day parade organizers to include them.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 10, 2025
He told the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association World Conference in Cape Town last year: "It is important that we stop to look at religion as the enemy."
From BBC • Feb. 17, 2025
LGBTQIA2s+ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual and 2Spirit and + is for the genders beyond that.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 23, 2023
When people were diagnosed with AIDS, "they lasted hours to days," said Judy Reeves, chair of Texas' Gulf Coast Archive and Museum of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History.
From Salon • Dec. 9, 2022
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.
