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heterosexual

UK/ˌhɛtəɹəˈsɛkʃuəl/US/ˌhɛtəɹəˈsɛkʃuəl/
nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,368 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: heterosexuals

A heterosexual is somebody attracted to people of the other sex. A heterosexual couple, heterosexual relationships, identify as heterosexual.

It works as a noun and an adjective, and the adjective is the more usual — heterosexual people rather than heterosexuals. It was coined in the 1890s, later than you might expect, alongside homosexual, when medicine began classifying such things.

Definitions of heterosexual

  1. 1nounheterosexualSomebody attracted to people of the other sex.B2+

    “The new law gave same-sex couples the same right to marry as heterosexuals.”

heterosexual is a person, or an orientation.

Where it comes from

From Greek heteros, other, plus sexual. It was coined in the 1890s in medical writing.

  1. Latin

    sexuālis

  2. English

    sexual

  3. English, today

    heterosexual

From hetero- + -sexual. Earliest citation from 1892, in C.G. Craddock's translation of Krafft-Ebbing's Psychopathia Sexualis. sexual Borrowed from Latin sexuālis. by surface analysis, sex + -ual.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

heterosexual in the wild

  • Across cultures, most people are heterosexual, and heterosexual activity is by far the most common type of sexual activity.

    Heterosexuality

  • According to Elizabeth Cramer, it can include the belief that all people are or should be heterosexual and that heterosexual relationships are the only norm and therefore superior.

    Heterosexism

  • Non-heterosexual is a word for a sexual orientation or sexual identity that is not heterosexual.

    Non-heterosexual

  • The term is similar to queer, though less politically charged and more clinical; queer generally refers to being non-normative and non-heterosexual.

    Non-heterosexual

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the sexuālis family

sexual

heterosexual — used about once every 1,918 pages · #6,368 · point at the bar for the others