Definition

Noun: * An individual possessing both male and female biological sexual characteristics and reproductive organs. This condition, often identified at birth, makes it impossible to assign a definitively male or female sex classification.

Usage Notes

• This term is a specific, formal, and often clinical or academic term for an intersex person. In modern, person-first language, terms like "intersex person" are generally preferred.
• The word "epicene" itself, when used as an adjective, can describe something that has characteristics of both sexes or is lacking gender distinction. However, "epicene person" is a fixed noun phrase with the specific meaning defined above.

Examples

• The medical team consulted specialists because the newborn was an epicene person.
• Historical records sometimes refer to individuals now understood to be intersex as an epicene person.

Advanced Usage

• The term is primarily found in medical, biological, anthropological, or historical texts. Its use in everyday conversation is rare and can be considered outdated or insensitive.

Variants and Related Words

• Intersex person (n.): The contemporary and more widely accepted term for an epicene person.
• Hermaphrodite (n.): An older, now often considered outdated and sometimes offensive, biological term for an organism with both male and female reproductive organs. Its application to humans is largely superseded by "intersex."
• Epicene (adj.): Possessing qualities or characteristics of both sexes; also, lacking gender distinction or being effeminate (when applied to a male).

Synonyms

• Intersex individual
• Person with intersex traits
• (In specific biological/zoological contexts) Hermaphrodite

Antonyms

• Biologically male person
• Biologically female person

Related Phrases/Idioms

• Of indeterminate sex: A descriptive phrase meaning the sex cannot be determined, often used in similar contexts.
• Born with ambiguous genitalia: A clinical description of one of the possible physical manifestations leading to the identification of an intersex condition.

Noun

1. one having both male and female sexual characteristics and organs; at birth an unambiguous assignment of male or female cannot be made