sexual characteristic
noun · n
Simple meaning
Those characteristics that are strongly associated with one sex relative to the other.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sehkshoouhlkuhruhkterihstikSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɛkʃuəlkɛɹəktɚɪstɪk
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.
noun
Those characteristics (both anatomical and psychological) that are strongly associated with one sex relative to the other
n
Physical traits of an organism (typically of a sexually dimorphic organism) which are indicative of or resultant from biological sexual factors.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Those characteristics (both anatomical and psychological) that are strongly associated with one sex relative to the other
Used this way, sexual characteristic is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.