epicene they
epicene they noun: the pronoun they when used to refer to a single individual, regardless of gender.
Noun
epicene they (plural epicene theys)
- The pronoun they when used to refer to a single individual, regardless of gender.
- That's because, as amazing as it sometimes seems to austere grammarians, epicene "they" is not universally regarded as wrong. It has a long and respected history (dating back to the 14th century, I believe), and many famous writers have used and defended it.2001 August 27, Brian Tung <brian@isi.edu>, “Re: OK, Why No Half Moon Phase?”, in sci.astro.amateur (Usenet), via Google Groups, archived from the original on 19 May 2026
- Some researchers have suggested a strong link between the type of antecedent and the chosen alternative of the epicene pronoun. For example, it has been suggested that the majority of epicene theys refer to quanticational expressions such as somebody, everybody, etc.2002 August, Maciej Baranowski, “Current usage of the epicene pronoun in written English”, in Journal of Sociolinguistics, volume 6, number 2, Blackwell Publishers, →DOI, →ISSN, page 383
Forms of epicene they
| plural | epicene theys |
|---|
Questions about epicene they
- What does epicene they mean?
- Epicene they means the pronoun they when used to refer to a single individual, regardless of gender.
- What part of speech is epicene they?
- Epicene they is a noun.
- What is the plural of epicene they?
- The plural of epicene they is epicene theys.
Words near epicene they in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: epicene they (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: “epicene they.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/epicene_they. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.