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• homo
  homo

  noun

  a contemptuous term used to refer to a gay person, especially a gay man.
• Homo
  Homo

  noun

  the genus of bipedal primates that includes modern humans and several extinct forms, distinguished by their large brains and a dependence upon tools.
• homo-
  homo-

  a combining form appearing in loanwords from Greek, where it meant “same” (homology ); on this model, used in the formation of compound words (homomorphic ).
• homo–
  homo–

  A prefix meaning “same,” as in homogamous, having the same kind of flower.

homo

¹ American  

[hoh-moh] / ˈhoʊ moʊ /

noun

Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive.

• homos
  plural

1. a contemptuous term used to refer to a gay person, especially a gay man.

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Homo ² American  

[hoh-moh] / ˈhoʊ moʊ /

noun

1. the genus of bipedal primates that includes modern humans and several extinct forms, distinguished by their large brains and a dependence upon tools.

2. Facetious. (used in made-up taxonomic expressions to denote a type of human being).

   The door opens, and in walks Homo stupidus.

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homo- ³ American  

1. a combining form appearing in loanwords from Greek, where it meant “same” (homology ); on this model, used in the formation of compound words (homomorphic ).

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homo ¹ British  

/ ˈhəʊməʊ /

noun

1. informal homogenized milk

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homo ² British  

/ ˈhəʊməʊ /

noun

1. informal short for homosexual

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homo- ³ British  

combining form

1. being the same or like Compare hetero-

   homologous

   homosexual

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Homo ⁴ British  

/ ˈhəʊməʊ /

noun

1. a genus of hominids including modern man (see Homo sapiens ) and several extinct species of primitive man, including Homo habilis and Homo erectus

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homo– Scientific  

1. A prefix meaning “same,” as in homogamous, having the same kind of flower.

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Homo Cultural  

1. The genus to which human beings belong. The genus Homo includes Neanderthals and other hominids closely related to today's humans, such as Homo erectus.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• homos
  plural

Etymology

Origin of homo¹

First recorded in 1920–25; by shortening of homosexual ( def. )

Origin of Homo²

First recorded in 1590–1600; from Latin homō “man, human,” literally “the earthly one,” derivative of humus “earth, ground, soil”; related to Latin hūmānus “pertaining to man, human”; akin to Old English guma, Old Irish duine, Welsh dyn, Old Lithuanian žmuõ “human being”; see humus, human

Origin of homo-³

< Greek, combining form of homós one and the same; akin to Sanskrit sama-; see same

Explanation

The genus that includes modern humans is called Homo. "Homo sapiens" are modern humans. Our ancestors had names like "Homo neanderthalensis" and "Homo erectus." Homo is a Latin word that means man, or human. When it is used as a prefix, as in "homosexual," it comes from the Greek word homos, meaning the same. It is from the word "homosexual" that the noun homo is shortened and takes its second meaning — a derogatory term for a homosexual or gay man. Its use is offensive, and you should use other terms instead. It is spelled with a lowercase h in this use.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

homo Homo homo- homos

But their construction, and ingenuity, has one wondering about the intelligence and fortitude of these homo sapiens who lived as many as 9,000 years ago.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2025

Because there's a parallel between Ricardo as a stockbroker and the idea of "homo economicus."

From Salon ● Feb. 1, 2025

The script’s ridiculous rationale — which our hero repeatedly intones like he’s hypnotizing us to believe it — is that certain beekeepers have pledged to prevent colony collapse, both apoidea and homo sapien.

From New York Times ● Jan. 10, 2024

The question then will be whether any kind of action will be enough to forestall the extinction of the one species we all care about: homo sapiens.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 22, 2023

One is dbghem, meaning earth; this became guman in Germanic, gumen in Old English, then homo and humanus in Latin, from which we have both “human” and “humus.”

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

A creature descends to Earth from a sleek spacecraft, still humanoid but far removed from its ancestor species Homo sapiens sapiens.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026

Vazquez compared the contrast to a hypothetical situation in which our close relative, Homo neanderthalensis, lived nine times longer than modern Homo sapiens.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 12, 2026

The commissioning programme was started by the RSA in 1998 and the first work, Mark Wallinger's Ecce Homo, went up the following year.

From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026

The team used an acid etching technique that requires only very small amounts of material to recover molecular information from six Homo erectus teeth while leaving the shape of the fossils intact.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026

Such cooperation was one of the important trademarks of Homo sapiens, and gave it a crucial edge over other human species.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

They replace explicit references to homo- and heterosexuality—which would indicate disparate treatment—with the catch-all terms sexual orientation and gender identity.

From Slate ● Jan. 27, 2022

It is one in which the conventions of both homo- and heteronormative expression are called into question daily.

From New York Times ● Sep. 18, 2018

“Your homo- or heterosexuality is neither a virtue nor a flaw. It just isn’t. Who you want to have sex with is not something you cultivate.”

From The Guardian ● Apr. 29, 2017

Another key structural problem is to understand how GPCRs associate to form homo- or hetero-oligomers.

From Nature ● Feb. 13, 2013

The word homophone is not recognized by Johnson or by Richardson: Johnson under homo- has six derivatives of Herbert Spencer's favourite word homogeneous, but beside these only four other words with this Greek affix.

From Society for Pure English, Tract 02 On English Homophones by Robert Seymour Bridges

But the epochal battle between homos neanderthalensis and sapiens takes the most English form imaginable: a football match.

From Slate ● Feb. 14, 2018