gaydar

American  

[gey-dahr] / ˈgeɪ dɑr /

noun

Informal.

1. a person's purported intuitive or sensing ability to identify gay people.

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gaydar British  

/ ˈɡeɪdɑː /

noun

1. informal  the supposed ability of a homosexual person to recognize whether another person is homosexual

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Etymology

Origin of gaydar

First recorded in 1980–85; gay ( def. ) + (ra)dar ( def. )

Example Sentences

I’m not sure what the straight equivalent of gaydar is — “straightdar” just doesn’t have the same ring — but I am pretty sure I don’t have it.

From Los Angeles Times

Even though my gaydar immediately found the queers in the room.

From Los Angeles Times

He also fronted a show on sister station Scala Radio, and helped launch the UK's first LGBT+ station Gaydar Radio, as creative director in 2001.

From BBC

While Perry quietly rages against his new role as the defender of the petit bourgeois and Della entertains the offer of a date from a woman she encounters at a restaurant — whose gaydar, it seems, is next-gen — the case that will seemingly dominate the season unfolds.

From New York Times

It’s hard to know whether she was conscious of it — gaydar? — but in retrospect, it reflects a feminist understanding that homophobia is an element of the misogyny she herself had faced.

From Los Angeles Times