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androgyne

American  
[an-druh-jahyn] / ˈæn drəˌdʒaɪn /

noun

  1. an androgynous person, such as one whose appearance is neither clearly masculine nor clearly feminine.

  2. a person whose gender identity is linked to androgyny, such as by being a blend of male and female or by being neither male nor female.

    1. Older Use: Often Offensive. a person having reproductive characteristics of both sexes.

    2. a mythical early form of human in which the sexes had not been divided into two separate categories, and instead each person was both male and female at the same time.

  3. Botany. a plant having staminate and pistillate flowers in the same inflorescence.


androgyne British  
/ ˈændrəˌdʒaɪn /

noun

  1. another word for hermaphrodite

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of androgyne

First recorded in 1545–55; from Middle French, from Latin androgynus, from Greek andrógynos “hermaphrodite,” equivalent to andro- + gyn- + -os, masculine noun suffix

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:

On platinum albums including “Antichrist Superstar” and “Mechanical Animals,” Manson cultivated a character — part Alice Cooper, part androgyne glam monster — that antagonized the religious right and enraptured teenagers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2021

In "The Garden of Eden," David Bourne often refers to Catherine — Hemingway's androgyne avatar — as "Devil."

From Salon ● Apr. 12, 2021

Rather than sounding like a boy, Cher’s voice in the 1960s suggests a coming era of the androgyne, with a whiff of all that multicultural, multiethnic and thrillingly exotic territory beyond race and gender.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 26, 2018

The narrator repeatedly casts herself as an androgyne.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 23, 2018

With the cessation of lactation the female reenters somer and becomes once more a perfect androgyne.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

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