heterosexual
/ˌhɛtəɹəˈsɛkʃuəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.39 in modern English
22
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
6
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Sexually attracted to members of the opposite sex.
adj
Having a sexual desire for the opposite sex seen as unhealthy, including a proclivity for nonreproductive sex.
Obsolete
noun
A heterosexual person, or other heterosexual organism.
Example Sentences
- "Thai charter court rules that only heterosexual marriages are constitutional: Same-sex marriage in Thailand will have to wait, as the Constitutional Court ruled unanimously today (Wednesday) that Section 1448 of the Civil and Commercial Code, defining marriage as being a union between a man and a woman, is constitutional."
- "Nevertheless, Bumble, the dating app which once styled itself as a beacon of women’s empowerment because heterosexual women had to make the first move, appears to have missed the memo."
- "Early Adolescence. This is the high school period between 14 and 17 years of age. This is a confusing and stressful period for the teenager, because sexual impulses are now quite strong in spite of societal sanctions against heterosexual activity."
- "On the average, the [bisexual] women’s first heterosexual attraction and experience (at 11.6 and 14.7 years) occurred before their first homosexual attraction and experience (at 16.9 and 21.4 years)."
- "Attempts at eliminating bias against LGBTQ people through education, academically and clinically, often lead to inclusion practices that are “added-on”, i.e., a family therapy course discusses same-sex couples as an addendum lecture at the end of the course, instead of infusing the material throughout the course. Green and Mitchell (2008) ask their readers to imagine authoring an article entitled “Therapy with Heterosexual Couples.”"
- "Mankeeping describes the emotional labor women end up doing in heterosexual relationships. It goes beyond remembering birthdays or coordinating social plans. It means being your partner’s one-man support system."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sem- Proto-Indo-European *sḿ̥teros Proto-Hellenic *hə́teros Ancient Greek ἕτερος (héteros)lbor. English hetero- Proto-Indo-European *sek-der. Proto-Indo-European *séks-u-sder. Proto-Italic *seksus Proto-Indo-European *sek- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *sékh₁yeti Proto-Italic *sekaō Latin secō Latin secāre? Latin sexus Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin sexuālisbor. English sexual English -sexual English heterosexual From hetero- + -sexual. Earliest citation from 1892, in C.G. Craddock's translation of Krafft-Ebbing's Psychopathia Sexualis.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌhɛtəɹəˈsɛkʃuəl/
- British English: /ˌhɛtəɹəˈsɛkʃuəl/