homosexual
/ˌhɒməʊˈsɛksjuːəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.72 in modern English
22
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
5
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Sexually and/or romantically attracted to members of the same sex, such as a man who is attracted to other men or a woman who is attracted to other women; gay. (Typically used in the sense of sole/exclusive attraction.)
Formal
Example Sentences
- "No, it wouldn't make a difference if the applicant was homosexual."
- "[H]e said he had never noticed anything homosexual in himself."
- ""Significant results indicate that Swedes would choose a more masculine partner the more homosexual they are, and that Finns would choose a more attractive partner the more homosexual they are.""
- "Most western countries have repealed laws against homosexual activity between consenting adults."
- "Shatner: Have you ever had a homosexual experience? Maher: No. Why, are you...? But it's early!"
- "A petition drive to close all homosexual establishments in response to an assumed general AIDS contagion was begun in late October, according to The Weekly News of Miami."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sem- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *somHós Proto-Hellenic *homós Ancient Greek ὁμός (homós)der. German homo- 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. German sexual German homosexualbor. English homosexual Borrowed from German homosexual, from homo- (“same”) + sexual (“relating to sex or sexuality”), coined by Karl Maria Kertbeny in 1868, and popularized in Richard von Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis (2nd ed. 1887, in German) and Charles Gilbert Chaddock's 1892 English translation thereof (compare bisexual), displacing the slightly older term Uranian. Equivalent to homo- + -sexual.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
gay
lesbian
same-sex
homophile
homosexual
like that
queer
similisexual
that way
This section is divided into two tables
one containing synonyms that generally are not derogatory and one containing those that generally are. However
note that the non-derogatory terms can nonetheless be used derogatorily