Cambridge Dictionary has finally made the term female inclusive, took them long enough. "She was the school's first trans athlete"

[SingleSexSpacesInSchools]

It's about time the word female was updated in dictionaries to its true meaning, inclusive of males. Don't know why it took so long for this to happen.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/female

Sigh.

male and female is sex. Only sex. It has nothing to do with gender.

The University itself has produced two of the most flagrant idiots of my acquaintance.

Still a shame to see the dictionary descend into this. It's supposed to be descriptive of the language as it is actually used, not pushing some disturbing minority fetishist agenda.

Or, she was the school’s first female athlete who identified as nonbinary, pronouns she or they.
Meaningless.🤷‍♀️

But people often use it to mean gender. Just as people use ‘literally’ to mean ‘metaphorically’. And dictionaries reflect usage, whether you agree with that usage or not.

No, though people often use the word ‘gender’ as a euphemism for sex.

it’s relatively few people who try to use male/female to refer to ‘gender’ rather than sex because other than trans people and activists most people aren’t talking about ‘gender’. Most people know that women == adult human female.

Fuck the fuck off. You can bet your last penny that there is none of this fuckery in the definition of male.

No.

While dictionaries do reflect common usage, the redefinition of "female" to include gender identity isn't a neutral evolution like "literally", it's a deliberate ideological shift driven by a vocal minority, conflating sex (immutable biology) with gender (social construct). This erases women's material reality, enabling male intrusion into female-only spaces, sports, and rights, prioritising male feelings over female safety and fairness. Sex isn't a spectrum; female means of the sex that produces ova, not a costume anyone can claim.

I agree with every word. Similar to how the word ‘liberal’ has undergone a transformation in meaning over the past decade or so. But that doesn’t preclude a dictionary reflecting usage.

Well said, SSSIS.

Just because some prissy people are afraid to use the word sex to describe sex, in case people think that they mean the act of sexual intercourse, it does not follow that we should replace it with a confusing word, which means neither.

With respect, your comparison to "liberal" misses the mark. The shift in "female" isn't a natural linguistic drift but a forced redefinition that muddies a clear, biological category, sex, with subjective gender identity. Dictionaries should clarify, not obscure, reality. By reflecting this usage, Cambridge risks legitimising the erosion of women's sex-based rights, enabling males to access female spaces and sports. This isn't progress; it's a regression that sacrifices precision and fairness for ideology. Words matter, and "female" must retain its grounding in biological truth, not bend to cultural pressure.

No.

This is the dictionary giving an example of the word "female as an adjective pertaining to gender".

It makes absolutely no attempt to define "female as an adjective pertaining to gender", despite the fact that defining things is the entire point of a dictionary.

There is a reason for this.

It's because "female as an adjective pertaining to gender" is completely fucking meaningless.

No one will define it because if they tried, they would have to resort to a load of clichéd, regressive stereotypes that would make even the most hardened trans activist blush.

Female is a word that means one of the two biological sexes. It has no other meaning.

When people talk about female as a gender, they are either using gender as a polite synonym for sex, or they are talking absolute gobbledegook, because they are using the word female to mean "maybe female, maybe male, who knows, precision is for bigots anyway."

We should all be fucking raging about this.

TurnThatLightOn

Like you, I'm cracking on in years. I can hardly believe what I'm reading sometimes. Back in the 70s we had glam rock, gay men, feminine men, butch women, women who were dead glam, and girly lesbians. Nobody cared a jot.
My best friend when I had my babies was a gay man we call Auntie Bob for the purposes of amusement. His partner is Auntie Keith. It's ok. It's a jokey thing.
He is gay as a scarlet flannel in dress and manner. Nobody cared. He was a lovely person who happened to be gay. I had my babies in the 80s. It was a time when being gay had progressed to not really mattering to most people.

Auntie Bob is sexually attracted to men. To this day he remains sexually attracted to a man because he has now settled down with his partner of 20 years. I've had long chats with him. Although he wears a little bit of eyeliner and shadow, and dresses quite flamboyantly, he has absolutely no desire for anyone to think he is a woman or to present as a woman.

But. He has confided that he wishes he had been born a woman because of his attraction to men. He would have liked to be a woman and to attract a straight man, maybe just once to satisfy his curiosity. Just to see how it feels to have sex as a woman with a straight man. But he knows that's a pipe dream! He knows he has a penis and is not a woman.

His opinion on trans is that current stupidity is making gay men think that they want to be a woman because now, with all this ridiculousness going on, it looks as if they can! Which will lead to one being able to be a woman having sex with a straight man. Which it flamingly obviously isn't. Very few straight men would want to have sex with a post-op transwoman. Look how India W came on to that bloke in BB and he was, like, no way, get away, get off me!!

Because he knows that India is a man and will always be a man.
No amount of surgery or hormones can make a man into a woman.

And then there's the other sort of man who wants to pretend he's a woman, to infiltrate their private places. Toilets. Changing rooms. Therapy groups.
Anywhere that men are not welcome, they want to be there to plant their entitlement.

I remember the clubs and pubs in the North East, where there were rooms that women were not allowed into. Yes! It really was a thing. I lived through going to a pub and not being allowed any further than the snug. The rest of the pub was men only. I registered my disapproval by refusing to pay for my husband's drinks. ( He was in the men's room where women weren't allowed) but I had the money. I refused to pay for him. Not allowed at that bar? Then sing for your money.

Anyway, Auntie Bob who is completely gay and homosexual is happy with his life choice I think he and most of his gay friends would quite like to experience life as a woman because they would love to attract straight men. But they're all older. I mean, what if the upcoming homosexual people were to be given the ridiculous opportunity to pretend that they're the opposite sex and everybody has to suck it up although they know it's bloody fucking ridiculous.

It's so unkind to make them think that it's an option.
No straight man is going to want to fuck a false vagina.

I think it's more about infiltrating female spaces.

But it is you that seems celebratory not the editors of the dictionary

They wouldn't need to do a dna test they'd just need to look at your pelvis. Bones dont lie

Surprisingly, the definition of male includes "He is one of the most prominent trans male athletes today."

Surprising because that is a sentence no one has ever said.

So you don't understand what it means to be transgender, you don't understand UK law, you don't understand that giving a minority the right to a dignified life has no tangible effect on females. But you're just the genius to lecture Cambridge Dictionary compilers how to do their job. Please don't be offended when they treat your divisive rhetoric with complete indifference.

They wouldn't need to do a dna test they'd just need to look at your pelvis. Bones don't lie

Yep, Never thought beyond the DNA. You are 100% right and I stand corrected.

‘Careen’ and ‘career’ are closely related etymologically. The word ‘keel’ is directly related to ‘career’ - in Latin, carina, ‘keel’.

So you don't understand what it means to be transgender, you don't understand UK law, you don't understand that giving a minority the right to a dignified life has no tangible effect on females

Having men claim to be women has a huge detrimental effect on women.
Huge and huger than you can imagine.
A small number of men claim that they are women?

And they can infiltrate women's spaces?
No and no and no again.
The dignified life belongs to the women, not the men who think they should be accepted as women and make all women in their wake feel less dignified because of their presence. They are not women and never will be. Sort out your own problems menfolk. We women have enough of our own problems in buckets.

Unexpected menopausal sweats? Heavy vaginal bleeding to deal with?
Go into a changing room when you know there is a man there pretending to be a woman and fooling nobody? Trust me, a pretend woman in a women's changing room is not going to go unnoticed. I've done it myself in M&S. There wasn't an obvious man there, but the sign said communal changing room so I was not relaxed enough to try the dress on. I'd heard M&S were a bit laissez faire about
who was allowed in the changing room so I just couldn't undress.

Maybe my problem to deal with. I've grown up since the 70s knowing there are places where men cannot go. Are not allowed. I can get undressed with only other women in the room. That is not the case any more and it's beyond my comprehension that this can be acceptable.

giving a minority the right to a dignified life

I'm assuming this is giving transwomen carte blanche to use womens' facilities.
What about the 52% of the population who are women and do not want men in their private spaces? Because transwomen are men.

Are these women to be denied their dignity because of a few men who would like us to believe they are women? Which they are not and never will be.

Eh?

Well I wrote it down. You don't need hearing aids to read.

you don't understand that giving a minority the right to a dignified life has no tangible effect on females.

Are you referring to actual females in this sentence or to men who want to be female? Using the Cambridge dictionary's definition, it's unclear.

No, you're the one who doesn't understand how wrong you are.

Making the word "female" inclusive of male has a very deleterious effect on female people. It denies them of a meaningful word for themselves and thus the ability to describe and discuss themselves. And it denies them of single sex spaces and sports.

Women - by which I mean real women - also have the right to a dignified life. And that means not forcing them to get changed in front of males, share prison accommodation with males, discuss their experience of being raped in front of males, and compete in sports against males.

Their right to a dignified life should not be conditional on there being no males in that particular space who have arbitrarily decided that they identify as female despite meeting none of the objective criteria for being female and believe that they are entitled to access things which are for female people.

Men calling themselves "trans women" and demanding access to women's spaces is actually male entitlement writ large. They have less in common with women than most other men do.

Genuinely wish I never brought children into this messed up world. Those with severe delusions, the need for attention and mental health issues are enabled and encouraged 🙄

luckily every single member of my family know exactly what gender they are, the one assigned at birth.