bisexual

CEFRB2

/baɪˈsɛk.ʃʊ.əl/

noun · adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
a person who is sexually attracted to both sexes.
02
noun
Extra detail
Having both male and female parts, characteristics, or functions., Of flowers: having both pollen and seeds.

Examples

It's more ridiculous to speak constructed languages than to be gay, bisexual or transsexual.
Tom is either gay or bisexual, I think.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 2
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 5

Also pronounced

/-sjʊ(ə)l/
/baɪˈsɛk.ʃ(əw).əl/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

Sexually attracted to both opposite-sex and same-sex individuals. (Compare pansexual.)
Having both male and female parts, characteristics, or functions.
Of flowers: having both pollen and seeds.

More examples

In context

Midrash and Zohar present Adam as hermaphroditic or bisexual.
Skirt Club caters to bisexual or bicurious women. No men are allowed, but women with all levels of experience in same-sex sexuality, from bicurious to fully lesbian, are welcomed.
We also know that bisexual species reproduce during a longer period than hermaphrodite species.

Quick test

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The survey asked participants if they identify as heterosexual, homosexual, or blank.

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Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

Skirt Club caters to bisexual or bicurious women. No men are allowed, but women with all levels of experience in same-sex sexuality, from bicurious to fully lesbian, are welcomed.
2016 October 7, Juliet Bennett Rylah, “Skirt Club Is a Sex Club for the Casually Bisexual Modern Woman”, in VICE
Pakistani transgender activist Hina Baloch has sparked a massive online debate after claiming in a viral video that 80% of Pakistan is gay and the remaining 20% are bisexual. Speaking in an interview with the Queer Global YouTube channel, Baloch described homosexuality in Pakistan as an open secret suppressed by religion, culture, and family honour. She argued that social pressure forces most Pakistanis to deny or conceal their true sexual orientation.
2026 April 4, India Today Global, “80% Of Pakistanis are gay, says Trans Activist Hina Baloch In An Interview”, in Youtube Video Description
The bisexual name, such as Marion and Carol (and Evelyn and Vivian in England), is frequently a source of annoyance and embarrassment to the letter writer, who, if he does not know his ambiguously named correspondent personally […]
1947, Louise Pound, Kemp Malone, Arthur Garfield Kennedy, William Cabell Greet, American Speech
At the desk, he completed the registration card, signing his name Jean Cable and giving a New York address. He did not know for sure that he was being pursued, but if so, he knew his pursuers would check new registrations around the city. The bisexual name would give them one more obstacle […]
1976, Frank V. Fowlkes, The Peruvian Contracts: A Novel, Putnam Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 128
And although Stevens introduces Nanzia Nunzio as a woman, the inflections of the bisexual name and the symbolism implicit in the messenger's characteristics suggest that the "contemplated spouse" is something more than a woman.
1984, The Wallace Stevens Journal

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Origin

noun

From bi- + -sexual, via the French bisexuel (bi-, sexuel). Attested since 1792 as a synonym in botany for "hermaphroditic" ("having male and female parts"). First used of sexuality in Richard von Krafft-Ebing's 1886 Psychopathia Sexualis (in German) and Charles Gilbert Chaddock's 1892 English translation thereof, due to the theory that people were naturally attracted to the opposite sex and so the brain or mind of a person attracted to "both" sexes (or to the same sex) must be partly of another sex and thus "hermaphroditic".