homosexual
Syllables: ho·mo·sex·ual/ˌhɒməʊˈsɛksjuːəl/
homosexual adjective: 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.).
Adjective
homosexual (comparative more homosexual, superlative most homosexual)
- 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.)
- No, it wouldn't make a difference if the applicant was homosexual.
- [H]e said he had never noticed anything homosexual in himself.1892 [1889], Charles Gilbert Chaddock, transl., Psychopathia Sexualis, Philadelphia: F. A. Davis, translation of Psychopathia Sexualis by R. von Krafft-Ebing, page 97
- Between two people of the same sex; gay.
- Most western countries have repealed laws against homosexual activity between consenting adults.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!2022 March 20, Bill Maher, William Shatner, 56:37 from the start, in William Shatner, Club Random With Bill Maher, episode 1, Club Random Podcast, archived from the original on 05 Apr 2022
- Synonyms:
- same-sex
- Intended for or used by homosexuals, as a nightclub, a bar, etc.
- 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.1983 December 24, “Effort To Close Gay Businesses Underway”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 2
Noun
homosexual (plural homosexuals)
- A person who is sexually attracted solely or primarily to others of the same sex.
- It must not be understood that homosexuality is confined to women. Relationships of this type exist also among men, and in taki-taki are to be found words which are specific designations for male homosexuals, who are termed hantimąn, or awɛge.1936, Melville J. Herskovits, Frances S. Herskovits, Suriname folk-lore, New York: Columbia University Press, page 32
- Soon, we got up, walked around the west side — toward the "meat rack" — the gay part of the park. There, it was as if someone had hung a line of marionettes on the railing: the lonesome young homosexuals, legs dangling, looking, waiting for that one-night's sexual connection...1963, John Rechy, City of Night, page 48
- Synonyms:
- 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, and that some of the derogatory ones are often used humorously and non-derogatorily by gay people and others, of either sex* gay, invert, queer, same-sexer, only of men* company man, Uranian
homosexual meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
homosexual in Hindi
- sexually attracted solely or primarily to the same sex
- समलैंगिक samlaiṅgik
homosexual in Tamil
- தன் பாலின ஈர்ப்பு தன்பாலீர்ப்பு, தன் பாலீர்ப்புடைய ஆண், தன் பாலின ஈர்ப்புடைய ஆண், தன் பாலீர்ப்புடைய பெண், தன் பாலின ஈர்ப்புடைய பெண், ஓரினச்சேர்க்கைக்குரிய
homosexual in Marathi
- sexually attracted solely or primarily to the same sex
- समलिंगी samliṅgī
homosexual in Urdu
- homosexual, gay, lesbian, MLM, WLW
- ہم جنس پرست ham jins parast
More languagesFewer languages
- homosexual in Bengali
- সমকামী śomokami
- homosexual in Malayalam
- സ്വവർഗാനുരാഗി svavaṟgānurāgi
- homosexual in Gujarati
- હોમોસેક્સ્યુઅલ
- homosexual in Sanskrit
- समलिङ्गकामिन् samaliṅgakāmin
- homosexual in Assamese
- সমকামী xomokami
- homosexual in Nepali
- समलिङ्गी samaliṅgī
- homosexual in Arabic
- مِثْلِيّ الْجِنْس miṯliyy al-jins, مِثْلِيّ miṯliyy, شَاذّ جِنْسِيًّا šāḏḏ jinsiyyan, لُوطِيّ lūṭiyy
- homosexual in Malay
- homoseksual
- homosexual in Indonesian
- homoseksual, homosex
- homosexual in Persian
- همجنسگرا hamjensgarâ, هموسکسوئل homoseksu'el
- homosexual in Thai
- รักร่วมเพศ rák-rûuam-pêet, แต๋ว dtɛ̌o, ลักเพศ lák-gà-pêet, เกย์ gee
- homosexual in Vietnamese
- đồng tính, đồng tính luyến ái, giao hợp với người đồng tính
- homosexual in Myanmar
- ဂေး ge:
Examples of homosexual in a sentence
- "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."1983, Michael W. Ross, Homosexuality and Social Sex Roles:
- Homosexuals weren't depicted in the media in a positive light, if at all.1997, The Advocate, number 742, page 9:
Synonyms of homosexual
- gay
- lesbian
- same-sex
- 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
- and that some of the derogatory ones are often used humorously and non-derogatorily by gay people and others
- of either sex* gay
- invert
- queer
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- same-sexer
- only of men* company man
- only of women* lesbian
- sapphist
- of either sex* bugger
- fruit
- homo
- moffie
- only of men* fag
- faggot
- finook
- pole-smoker
- fairy
- flamer
- nance
- nancy
- nancy boy
- pansy
- poofter
- queen
- pederast
- sodomite
- swish
- light in the loafers
- only of women* lesbo
- dyke
- muff-diver
- carpet muncher
- scissor sister
- like that
Antonyms
Forms of homosexual
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more homosexual |
| superlative | most homosexual |
| Noun | |
| plural | homosexuals |
Origin of 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.
Words formed from homosexual
- antihomosexual
- Cuomosexual
- fauxmosexual
- globohomo
- Homintern
- homocapitalism
- Homocaust
- homocon
- homocrat
- homosexless
- homosexualisation
- homosexualise
- homosexualism
- homosexualist
- homosexuality
- homosexualization
- homosexualize
- homosexually
- homosexual marriage
- homosexualness
- homosexual panic defense
- homosexual transsexual
- I'm homosexual
- nonhomosexual
- pseudohomosexual
- queerosexual
- sinthomosexual
- homo
Phrases with homosexual
Words that rhyme with homosexual
- bisexual
- sexual
- ambisexual
- androsexual
- heterosexual
- omnisexual
- polysexual
- technosexual
- transsexual
- abrosexual
- aegosexual
- ammosexual
24 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about homosexual
- What does homosexual mean?
- Homosexual means 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.).
- What is homosexual in Hindi?
- Homosexual in Hindi is समलैंगिक (samlaiṅgik). See Homosexual meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use homosexual in a sentence?
- "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."
- What part of speech is homosexual?
- Homosexual can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce homosexual?
- Homosexual is pronounced /ˌhɒməʊˈsɛksjuːəl/.
Words near homosexual in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: homosexual (page history and authors); homosexual (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ہم جنس پرست (Urdu) (page history and authors); সমকামী (Bengali) (page history and authors); homosexual (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); সমকামী (Assamese) (page history and authors); समलिङ्गी (Nepali) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-homosexual.ogg, en-us-homosexual.ogg.
Cite this entry: “homosexual.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/homosexual. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.