genital
Americanadjective
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of, relating to, or noting reproduction.
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of or relating to the sexual organs.
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Psychoanalysis.
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of or relating to the genital phase of psychosexual development.
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of or relating to the centering of sexual impulses and excitation on the genitalia.
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adjective
Other Word Forms
- postgenital adjective
- pregenital adjective
- subgenital adjective
Etymology
Origin of genital
1350–1400; Middle English < Old French < Latin genitālis of birth, equivalent to genit ( us ), past participle of gignere to beget + -ālis -al 1
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.
Halfway through college, Russell spent two months in Tanzania assisting a nonprofit that taught female genital mutilation survivors how to make clothes to support themselves.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 21, 2026
The Gambia's Supreme Court began hearing a case this week brought by religious traditionalists who are hoping to topple the country's poorly enforced ban on female genital mutilation.
From Barron's • Dec. 18, 2025
It is a claim that has been linked to Koro syndrome, a mental illness otherwise known as missing or genital retraction hysteria.
From BBC • Oct. 25, 2024
Dimie Ogoina, a clinician at Niger Delta University in Nigeria, was the first to see mpox patients with genital lesions 7 years ago.
From Science Magazine • Apr. 19, 2024
What evolutionary benefit does a microbe derive from making us sick in bizarre ways, like giving us genital sores or diarrhea?
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
