bisexual
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Having both male and female parts, characteristics.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
bysehkshoouhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
baɪˈsɛkʃuəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
chiefly botany
Having both male and female parts, characteristics, or functions.
Sexually attracted to both sexes
of humans or other animals
Sexually attracted to both same-sex and opposite-sex partners.
Androgynous.
noun
A person who is sexually attracted to both sexes
A person who is bisexual.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Having both male and female parts, characteristics, or functions.
Used this way, bisexual is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use bisexual
- “She identifies as bisexual, finding herself attracted to people of any gender.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: having both male and female parts or characteristics
Antonyms
Sense: having both male and female parts or characteristics
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.