German word

Geschlecht

Pronunciation

IPA/gəˈʃlɛçt/

Meaning

  • neuter nounsex

Example

Welches Geschlecht hat das Baby?

What is the baby's sex?

Illustration for Geschlecht (sex)

More examples

Wir haben versucht, das Geschlecht herauszufinden.

We tried to find out the sex.

Core concept

One label connects a person's sex, a family's descent, and a noun's grammatical class.

Common phrases

  • nach dem Geschlecht fragen

    ask about the sex

  • das Geschlecht herausfinden

    find out the sex

  • das Geschlecht nennen

    state the sex

Similar words

Biologisches Geschlecht: A person's biological sex, based on physical traits.
Gender: Socially shaped ideas about masculinity, femininity, and related roles.
Geschlechtsidentität: A person's inner sense of their own gender.
Geschlechterrolle: Social expectations about behavior and roles linked to a gender.

Definition in German

Zugehörigkeit zu einem biologischen oder sozialen Geschlecht; historisch auch Abstammung oder Familie; in der Linguistik das grammatische Genus von Substantiven.

Word origin

The German noun Geschlecht developed from Middle High German gesleht, originally referring to descent or lineage before acquiring its senses for sex and grammatical gender.

Usage tips

  • For linguistic gender, German normally uses grammatisches Geschlecht, while Genus is also common in technical language.

Other meanings

  • grammatical gendernoun
  • lineagenoun

Related words

  • Geschlechtsidentitätgender identitynoun
  • geschlechtlichsex-relatedadjective
  • Geschlechterrollegender rolenoun

Word lists with this word