neuter

UK/ˈnjuːtə//ˈn(j)utɚ/

neuter adjective: neutral; on neither side; neither one thing nor another.

Adjective

neuter (not generally comparable, comparative more neuter, superlative most neuter)

(not comparable, uncommon, usually) Neutral; on neither side; neither one thing nor another.
- But if I could, by Him that gave me life,
  I would attach you all and make you stoop
  Unto the sovereign mercy of the king;
  But since I cannot, be it known to you
  I do remain as neuter.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
- This is certain, that in all our Undertakings God will be either our Friend or our Enemy. For Providence never stands neuter […]1672, Robert South, “A Sermon Preach’d at Westminster-Abbey, on the Twenty Ninth of May, 1672. Being the Anniversary Festival appointed by Act of Parliament, for the Happy Restoration of King Charles...
Synonyms:

impartial, neutral, candid, cold, clinical, detached, egal, equal, equitable, evenhanded
(not comparable, usually) Having a form which is not masculine nor feminine; or having a form which is not of common gender.
- a neuter noun
- the neuter definite article
(not comparable, usually) Intransitive.
- a neuter verb
Synonyms:

intransitive
(not comparable, usually) Sexless: having no or imperfectly developed sex organs.
- […] I should never have anticipated that natural selection could have been efficient in so high a degree, had not the case of these neuter insects convinced me of the fact.1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Instinct”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 242
Synonyms:

asexual, genderless, sexless
(literary, not comparable, usually) Sexless, non-sexual.
- Rich girls stayed home and got married and then "put out" occasionally, but only as their wifely duty. Prior to the sexual revolution in the 1960s southern belles were the most neuter members of the human race[.]2000, Jan Hutson, The Chicken Ranch: The True Story of the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, →ISBN, page 30
Synonyms:

asexual, platonic, unsexual
(not comparable, usually) Castrated; having had the reproductive organs removed.

Synonyms:

fixed, gelded, neutered, spayed

Noun

neuter (plural neuters)

An organism, either vegetable or animal, which at its maturity has no generative organs, or but imperfectly developed ones, as a plant without stamens or pistils, as the garden Hydrangea; especially, one of the imperfectly developed females of certain social insects, as of the ant and the common honeybee, which perform the labors of the community, and are called workers.
(offensive, sometimes, uncommon) One who has been neutered; eunuch.
- the information i acquire may help me finalize my decision to become a neuter. let me say that castration is (for me) in no way a short term goal. it's something i've heard about, thought about, and believe may benefit me personally.1999 July 21, ipso facto, “can anyone out there tell me...”, in alt.eunuchs.questions (Usenet)
- I WOULD SOONER BECOME A NEUTER
  no seriously tell me where the libido-suppressing pills are2015 March 8, @OzKFodrotski, Twitter
The act of neutering (typically an animal)
- Well, we've had a young (probably around a year old, but I'm guessing), intact (he's scheduled for a neuter, but it's one of those "when we get a spare minute" type of things) male Shih-tzu/shih-tzu mix come in about a month ago.2001 March 14, Shelly, “Shih tzu questions.”, in rec.pets.dogs.behavior (Usenet)
A person who takes no part in a contest; someone remaining neutral.
- But if you should beecome eyther a counterfayt Protestant, or a perverse Papist, or a colde and carelesse newter (which God forbid) the harme could not be expressed which you should do to your native Cuntrie.1571, Arthur Golding, “Epistle Dedicatorie”, in The Psalmes of David and others. With M. John Calvins Commentaries
- Friends, neuters, enemies, all are as one, to make a fool a madman is their sport […].1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section...
The neuter gender.
A noun of the neuter gender; any one of those words which have the terminations usually found in neuter words.
An intransitive verb or state-of-being verb.
- Make one do, or act (to), fare fare, fare agire, with an accusative when the verb is a neuter, and with a dative when otherwise.1820, M. Santagnello, A Dictionary of the Peculiarities of the Italian Language, G. and W. B. Whittaker, page 185
- Compound verbs other than those already spoken of whereby neuters are made active, are very rare, as I have already hinted under the head of nouns.1847, Brian Houghton Hodgson, Essay the First; On the Kocch, Bódo and Dhimál Tribes, in Three Parts, J. Thomas, page 119

Verb

neuter (third-person singular simple present neuters, present participle neutering, simple past and past participle neutered)

(transitive) To remove sex organs from an animal to prevent it from having offspring; to castrate or spay, particularly as applied to domestic animals.
(transitive) To rid of sexuality.
- The neutering extends to Believe’s guest stars, with warm-and-fuzzy verses from Ludacris (“I love everything about you / You’re imperfectly perfect”), Big Sean (“I don’t know if this makes sense, but you’re my hallelujah”), Nicki Minaj (who at least squeaks a “bitches” into her verse), and...2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The Onion AV Club
(transitive) To drastically reduce the effectiveness of something.
- Congress neutered the bill by adding an exception for big corporations.
- Here wrangling, bitty conflicts neutered change.1974, John Boorman, Zardoz, London: Pan Books, page 51
(transitive) To make grammatically neuter.
- At their religious services Am Tikva makes all attempts to de-genderize the liturgy by neutering English nouns and pronouns and, when Hebrew is used, by using both masculine and the feminine forms of the language.1983 December 3, Warren Blumenfeld, “Am Tikva”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 20, page 7

neuter meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

neuter in Hindi

neuter: नपुंसकलिंग napunsakliṅg, नपुंसक napunsak

neuter in Marathi

neutral, neither one thing nor another: निष्पक्ष niṣpakṣa
grammar: having a form which is not masculine nor feminine: नपुसकलिंगी napusakliṅgī
grammar: intransitive — see also intransitive: नपुसकलिंग napusakliṅga
having no generative organs, or imperfectly developed ones: अलिंगी aliṅgī

neuter in Urdu

بےجنس, جنس مشترک, مخنّس

More languagesFewer languages

neuter in Bengali: ক্লীবলিঙ্গ বাচক, পুরুষ, ক্লীব, নপুংসক
neuter in Telugu: నపుంసకలింగము napuṁsakaliṅgamu
neuter in Malayalam: പുല്ലിംഗവും സ്ത്രീലിംഗവും അല്ലാത്ത, നപുംസകലിംഗമായ, ലിംഗഭേദമില്ലാത്ത
neuter in Kannada: ನಪುಂಸಕ napuṃsaka
neuter in Punjabi: ਨਪੁੰਸਕ napunsak
neuter in Gujarati: નપુંસકલિંગ napũsakliṅg, નપુંસક napũsak
neuter in Sanskrit: नपुंसकलिङ्ग napuṃsakaliṅga, नपुंसाकलिङ्ग napuṃsākaliṅga
neuter in Tagalog: balaki
neuter in Arabic: مُحَايِد muḥāyid, خَصَى ḵaṣā
neuter in Indonesian: mengebiri
neuter in Persian: خنثی xonsâ, کماسه komâse
neuter in Vietnamese: giống trung
neuter in Myanmar: နပုလ္လိင် na.pulling

Examples of neuter in a sentence

a neuter termination
A relay race that does not match teams but integrates the fastest and the slowest in one race against the most neuter of all adversaries — time.1973, Nancy Frazier, Myra Sadker, Sexism in school and society:
Slaves were given short, often neuter, names.1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon...
In The Cook and the Carpenter, Arnold used the device of a neuter pronoun "na," instead of assigning gender to the characters.1982 April 10, Maida Tilchen, “June Arnold Dies of Cancer”, in Gay Community News, page 3:
You can change yourself into a neuter, but you can't become the opposite sex.2023 September 27, @Philosophy_the, Twitter:

All 25 example sentences with neuter

Synonyms of neuter

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of neuter

Forms of neuter

Adjective
comparative	more neuter
superlative	most neuter
alternative abbreviation	n.
alternative abbreviation	n
alternative abbreviation	ntr
Noun
plural	neuters
Verb
third-person singular present	neuters
present participle	neutering
past participle	neutered
past	neutered

Past tense of neuter: neutered

Origin of neuter

Inherited from Middle English neutre, from Latin neuter, from ne (“not”) + uter (“either”), a semantic loan from Koine Greek οὐδέτερος (oudéteros); compare English either, English whether, and neither.

Words formed from neuter

Phrases with neuter

Words that rhyme with neuter

4 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about neuter

What does neuter mean?: Neuter means neutral; on neither side; neither one thing nor another.
What is neuter in Hindi?: Neuter in Hindi is नपुंसकलिंग (napunsakliṅg), नपुंसक (napunsak). See Neuter meaning in Hindi.
How do you use neuter in a sentence?: a neuter termination
What part of speech is neuter?: Neuter can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce neuter?: Neuter is pronounced /ˈnjuːtə/ (UK).

Words near neuter in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-neuter.ogg.

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