lesbian
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
A woman who is attracted to other women
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
lehzbeeuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlɛzbiən
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
of a woman
Homosexual, gay; preferring exclusively women as romantic or sexual partners.
of a womanloosely
Preferring primarily women as romantic or sexual partners.
of a romantic or sexual act or relationship
Between two or more women; homosexual, gay.
Alternative letter-case form of lesbian ("of women: gay").
especially of an institution or group
Intended for lesbians.
noun
A homosexual woman, one who is exclusively sexually or romantically attracted to other women.
A resident of Lesbos
countable
Alternative letter-case form of lesbian ("gay woman").
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (of a woman) Homosexual, gay; preferring exclusively women as romantic or sexual partners.
Used this way, lesbian is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in relationships contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Relationships
Nearby words
- sapphic , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use lesbian
- “My friend identifies as lesbian and is happily married to her partner.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- bisexualnoun
- gaynoun
- homosexualnoun
- homosexualitynoun
- heterosexualnoun
- feminismnoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
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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.