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.

3. 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.

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

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androgyne British  

/ ˈændrəˌdʒaɪn /

noun

1. another word for hermaphrodite

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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

Emerging from a cult of nonpersonality, where ordinary figures with unassuming names like Ian Brown ascended to British music royalty, Brett Anderson, Suede’s fey and foppish androgyne, reintroduced theatricality and glamour to the scene.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 2, 2025

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 raven-locked, gamine former hair model in the clip is a world away from the strident, shock-haired androgyne that stormed to pole position in so many end-of-year album polls in 2014.

From The Guardian • Jul. 1, 2015

It may turn out to have nothing to do with their androgyne psychology.

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