Word.ws English Dictionary

transface

transface noun: the practice of a cisgender person (especially one of the opposite gender) portraying a transgender person in media.

Noun

transface (uncountable)

  1. The practice of a cisgender person (especially one of the opposite gender) portraying a transgender person in media.
    • […] the days of transface are numbered.2018, The New York Times Editorial Staff, Sex and Sexuality, The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc, →ISBN, page 79
    • A particularly troubling outcome of transface is the reinforcement of biodeterministic views of gender.2019, Jamison Green, Rhea Ashley Hoskin, Cris Mayo, sj Miller, Navigating Trans and Complex Gender Identities, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 99

Origin of transface

From trans + face (attested online since at least 2009), based on earlier blackface.

Questions about transface

What does transface mean?
Transface means the practice of a cisgender person (especially one of the opposite gender) portraying a transgender person in media.
What part of speech is transface?
Transface is a noun.

Words near transface in the dictionary

  1. transexuality
  2. transexuals
  3. transexy
  4. transf
  5. transf.
  6. transface
  7. transfacial
  8. transfactor
  9. transfactors
  10. transfalcine
  11. transfan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: transface (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: “transface.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/transface. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.