Merriam Webster dictionary adds definition of “female”

[Justdontgetit000]

Apologies if this has already been posted.

Article about this

The new definition says:

“Having a gender identity that is the opposite of male.”

No dictionary can describe the full range of meanings a words might have. They are guides to usage, descriptive and not prescriptive. They are tools you use to help you work out the meaning a word has when you come across it, not a repository of information on what words should mean. They don't provide mathematical definitions. The only decisive authority they really have is for scrabble players.

They have also updated 'girl' and 'boy' to include transgender uses.

As an aside, I already saw someone on Twitter argue that saying transgender female for a trans woman is perfectly fine as it is dictionary use, and then a reference to Merriam Webster. In other words, that it is no longer linked to something based on biology at all.

So if that was accepted, there would then not be any words at all which would clearly refer to an individual of the female sex.

A gender identity that is the opposite of female surely

A have sympathy with the dictionary writers because clearly when some people use the word they mean something else, but they tend to as elusive as possible about saying what.

In practice I try substituting "sex kitten" / "glamourous diva" /"harmless & non threatening" / or "classy lady" into the sentence until I find a stereotype that makes sense.

but to be clear I am 100% not ok with this