gaydar
/ˈɡeɪˌdɑɹ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.24 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The supposed ability to detect whether or not a person is gay by observing that person's appearance, mannerisms, etc.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "This is not your Hallmark in Ames, Iowa. And there is “family” working there … no radar like gaydar, I always say."
- "When you first come out, you might have an overactive gaydar. When I realized I was gay, I wanted everyone to be gay too, which led to a lot of wishful thinking. "Helen Hunt is gay!" Dream on, girl!"
- ""I dunno. He's carried this one on since Halloween. I'm starting to think the lie was actually the 'straight guy role'. I may have a crappy gaydar, but having faked heterosexuality before, I feel like I should be able to recognize it.""
- "The research, which went viral this week, used a sample of online dating photos, limited only to white users, to demonstrate that an algorithm could correctly distinguish between gay and straight men 81% of the time and 74% for women, suggesting machines can potentially have much better "gaydar" than humans."
- "Dr. Lillihammer started to walk past her, but stopped directly in front of her. Inches apart, they stared at each other. Sizing the other woman up, doing a little consulting of their gaydars. Heather felt Lillian's breath on her cheek and tried not to visibly let the shiver go down her spine."
Etymology
Etymology tree English gay English radiotelegraphyclip. English radio Latin dētēctiōder. Latin dētēctiōnembor. English detection Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₂énts Proto-Indo-European *-i Proto-Indo-European *h₂énti Proto-Germanic *andi Old English and Middle English and English and Proto-Indo-European *(H)rek-der. Proto-Celtic *reketi Gaulish *rekosbor.? Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ-der. Proto-Germanic *rinkanąder. Proto-Germanic *rankaz Frankish *rankbor.? Vulgar Latin *rencus Old French reng Proto-Italic *-āzi ▲ Latin -ereinflu. Latin -āre Old French -ier Old French rengierbor. Middle English rengen English range Middle English -ynge English -ing English ranging English RADAR English radar blend English gaydar Blend of gay + radar, equivalent to gay + -dar.
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɡeɪˌdɑɹ/
- British English: /ˈɡeɪdɑː/