Sensitive Note

The term transgender has largely replaced the older term transsexual, which is now considered outdated, though some people within the community continue to identify with the word transsexual, especially older people. Transgender is a less clinical term, referring more to gender identity and gender expression than to physical sex characteristics or sexual orientation. It is also a more general and inclusive term: a transgender person may be nonbinary, gender-fluid, genderqueer, third gender, etc. Use of transgender as a noun (One of my colleagues is a transgender ) is declining and is usually taken as offensive. And many people object to the adjectival variant transgendered (One of my colleagues is transgendered ) because the –ed suffix seems to imply that something happened to make the person transgender. See also trans, transsexual.

Word History and Origins

Origin of transgender¹
First recorded in 1970–75; trans- + gender ¹

Other Word Forms

• transgendered adjective

Compare Meanings

How does transgender compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• transgender vs. transsexual
• transgender vs. transgendered
• cisgender vs. transgender