The Cambridge Dictionary has changed the definitions of “male” and “female” to include people who do not identify with the s*x assigned at birth, the BBC reported.
“Male” is now defined as “an adult who lives and identifies as a male even though they may be said to have a different s*x at birth.”
The latest definition of “female” reads: “an adult who lives and identifies as female even though they were told a different s*x at birth”.
Previous definitions assumed that gender and gender identity were always intertwined. However, the new definitions include trans people.
A spokesman for Cambridge Dictionary said: “Our editors made this addition to the ‘woman’ entry in October.
“They carefully studied the usage patterns of the word ‘woman’ and concluded that this definition is one that learners of English should be aware of in order to understand how the language is used. For women, The first definition of entry remains unchanged and remains a mature female human being’.”
He added that their dictionaries are written for learners of English and are designed to help users understand English as it is currently used.
“We regularly update our dictionary to reflect changes in how English is used, based on analysis of data from this corpus,” he added.
