intersex

adj

1. (not-comparable)Of an individual, having any of a variety of inherent conditions (in a species with distinct sexes) in which one's sex characteristics differ from those of a typical male and female; for example, having sex characteristics relating to both male and female sexes.

   “His confidentiality was broken, and soon the entire staff and residential population were aware that Jim was intersex. […] we faced the fact that most programs were gender segregated and would not be a safe place for Jim to be known as intersex.”

   “When I had learned that I was intersex, I brought this issue to my mother.”

   “A survey of 1100 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people by Griffith and Bond University researchers found that the overwhelming majority had been victims of targeted harassment as well as physical and sexual abuse.”

noun

1. (uncountable)The condition of being intersex; intersexuality.

   “A Canadian believes that he has solved the diagnostic problem in human intersex. All human cells, says Dr. Murray L. Barr of the University of Western Ontario, contain something called sex chromatin.”

   “A much more common condition caused by early exposure of fish larvae to oestrogenic substances is intersex, which in males usually takes the form of ovotestis.”

2. (countable)An individual with any of these conditions.

   “Goldschmidt and others who have thought of the homosexual individual as an intersex have relied upon incidence figures which were pure guesses and which, as the data in the present chapter will show, bear little relation to the fact....”

   “Conversely, a fertilized egg with one X-chromosome would develop not into a male but into an intersex […]”

   “Pseudo-hermaphrodites or other intersexes are not to be confused with transsexualists; transvestites may be transsexualists, but not necessarily.”

   “Genital surgery on intersexes has been performed for about a century”

   “An intersex, then, is an animal that shows both male and female characteristics.”

3. (countable, uncountable)A person who can get pregnant and also impregnate someone else.

verb

1. (nonstandard)To make intersex.

   “The point is significant in light of current political issues surrounding real intersexed individuals. [...] It is clearly the case that physical intersexing and psychological androgyny do not conform to sex and gender norms in society. [...]”