Word.ws English Dictionary

desex

desex verb: to remove another's sexual characteristics or functions, often via physical sterilization.

Verb

desex (third-person singular simple present desexes, present participle desexing, simple past and past participle desexed)

  1. (transitive) To remove another's sexual characteristics or functions, often via physical sterilization.
  2. (transitive) To desexualize.
    • The Bronski Beat doesn't hint and flirt; it delivers. There's no artsy and safe vagueness behind "Need a Man Blues": […] The group hasn't desexed itself even to make a video.1985 August 10, Walta Borawski, “Sex, Liberation and Rock n' Roll”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 5, page 6

Forms of desex

third-person singular presentdesexes
present participledesexing
past participledesexed
pastdesexed

Origin of desex

From de- + sex.

Questions about desex

What does desex mean?
Desex means to remove another's sexual characteristics or functions, often via physical sterilization.
What part of speech is desex?
Desex is a verb.
What is the past tense of desex?
The past tense of desex is desexed.

Words near desex in the dictionary

  1. desethylchloroquine
  2. desethylibogamine
  3. desethylsimazine
  4. desetope
  5. desetopes
  6. desex
  7. desexed
  8. desexes
  9. desexing
  10. desexualisation
  11. desexualisations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: desex (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “desex.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/desex. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.