Word.ws English Dictionary

gamma male

gamma male noun: a male that is third in a social hierarchy, beneath alpha and beta, but above delta.

Noun

gamma male (plural gamma males)

  1. A male that is third in a social hierarchy, beneath alpha and beta, but above delta.
    • The gamma male, Kalunde, displayed an opportunistic coalition tactic formerly called 'alliance fickleness,' in which the third party changes sides from moment to moment.1996, William C. McGrew, William Clement McGrew, Linda F. Marchant, Great Ape Societies, page 132
    • The beta male faces left; the gamma male begins to turn then looks skyward. The beta male looks away from the gamma. The gamma male looks to his right but turns away as soon as the beta male shifts positions.2013, Leonard A. Rosenblum, Primate Behavior: Developments in Field and Laboratory Research, page 374
  2. An average male in the socio-sexual hierarchy, ranking below alphas and betas, and relatively unambitious.
    • The danger comes when a Gamma Male is taken by surprise and shunted into a position of LEADERSHIP (e.g. if he is tall) and has to pretend to be an Alpha.2011, L Vaughan Spencer, Don't Be Needy Be Succeedy: The A to Zee of Motivitality©, page 97
    • That was what rankled as much as anything. Being treated like the hired help. A gamma male who had stumbled into an alpha world. One of the little people.2012, James Craig, Never Apologise, Never Explain

Examples of gamma male in a sentence

  • I think the answer lies in the stringent hurdle raised by the change from status as a gamma male (gamma is the third letter in the Greek alphabet) to status as a beta male.2014, Ken Yasukawa, Animal Behavior: How and Why Animals Do the Things They Do, page 110:
  • “I am not some gamma male who thinks combat is a symposium or dissertation defense. […]"2014, Soren Knox, On Causal Shores: Palimpsest Veil and Ananke Protocol, page 35:

Forms of gamma male

pluralgamma males

Questions about gamma male

What does gamma male mean?
Gamma male means a male that is third in a social hierarchy, beneath alpha and beta, but above delta.
How do you use gamma male in a sentence?
I think the answer lies in the stringent hurdle raised by the change from status as a gamma male (gamma is the third letter in the Greek alphabet) to status as a beta male.
What part of speech is gamma male?
Gamma male is a noun.
What is the plural of gamma male?
The plural of gamma male is gamma males.

Words near gamma male in the dictionary

  1. gamma globulin
  2. gamma globulins
  3. gamma iron
  4. gamma knife
  5. gamma knives
  6. gamma male
  7. gamma males
  8. gamma of the gamma
  9. gamma particle
  10. gamma particles
  11. gamma pulsar

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gamma male (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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