gender

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
gender/ˈʤendə(r)/

▶noun

• 1 Grammar a class (usually masculine, feminine, common, or neuter) into which nouns and pronouns are placed in some languages, distinguished by a particular inflection.

  ■ the property of belonging to such a class.

• 2 the state of being male or female (chiefly in cultural or social contexts).

  ■ the members of one or other sex: differences between the genders.

– derivatives
gendered adjective.

– origin ME: from OFr. gendre (mod. genre), based on L. genus ‘birth, family, nation’.

usage: Although the words gender and sex both have the sense ‘the state of being male or female’, they are typically used in different ways: sex tends to refer to biological differences, while gender tends to refer to cultural or social ones.