23 new gender and sexuality terms added to the dictionary in 2022

• In 2022, Dictionary.com and the Oxford English Dictionary added 23 words to describe gender and sexuality concepts.
• New gender-related words include "enby," "nounself pronoun," and "pangender."

As people's understandings of gender and sexuality shift, whether due to cultural changes or scientific findings, so do the words we use to describe them.

Language is a major factor in how to shape our identities and view ourselves, and using words that people relate to can break down taboos and allow them to feel understood.

This year, Dictionary.com and Oxford English Dictionary added new gender and sexuality words and phrases to their pages, giving readers more options to describe who they are, what they desire, and how they show up in the world.

Words that are already popular slang, like "simp," made the cut, as did the verb form of "sixty nine."

Oxford English Dictionary additions include 'TERF,' 'stealthing,' and 'sixty nine'

• Anti-gay (adjective): Opposed or hostile to homosexual people (sometimes specifically gay men) or homosexuality
• Condomize (verb): To put on a condom; to use a condom during sexual intercourse, either as a contraceptive or to protect against infections
• Demisexual (adjective, noun): Involving ambiguous or amorphous sexual characteristics or activity
• Enby (adjective, noun): A person who has a non-binary gender identity; non-binary
• Hypersexualize (verb): To make (a person or thing) pervasively, excessively, or inappropriately sexual; to imbue or permeate with intense sexual or erotic
• Multisexual (adjective): Characterized by sexual or romantic attraction to, or sexual activity with, people of different sexes or gender identities
• Pangender (adjective): Designating a non-binary person whose gender identity encompasses multiple genders, which may be experienced simultaneously or in a fluid way
• Sixty nine (verb): To engage with a partner in simultaneous mutual oral stimulation of the genitals for sexual pleasure; to participate in a sixty-nine"
• Stealthing (noun): The action or practice of removing one's condom during sex (or occasionally of intentionally damaging it prior to sex) without the knowledge and consent of a partner
• TERF (noun): Transgender-exclusionary radical feminist; typically derogatory term for a feminist whose advocacy of women's rights excludes (or is thought to exclude) the rights of transgender women

Dictionary.com added 'simp,' 'aromantic,' and 'throuple'

• Aromantic (adjective): Noting or relating to a person who experiences little or no romantic attraction to other people
• Bachelorx party (noun): An inclusive pre-wedding party, often on the night before or in the days leading up to the wedding, and ranging from a night of drinking to a destination vacation (used in contrast to bachelor party and bachelorette party, and intended to be welcoming for wedding participants and guests of any gender)
• Demisexual (adjective): Noting or relating to a person who is sexually attracted only to people with whom they already have an emotional bond
• Feminine of center (adjective): Noting or relating to a person, especially an LGBTQ+ person, who is more feminine than masculine on a spectrum of gender expression
• Hegemonic masculinity (noun): A socially constructed masculine ideal, defined chiefly in contrast to or as the opposite of femininity, and held up as the most prestigious form of manliness in a heteropatriarchy
• Heteropatriarchy (noun): A hierarchical society or culture dominated by heterosexual males whose characteristic bias is unfavorable to gay people and females in general
• Masculine of center (adjective): Noting or relating to a person, especially an LGBTQ+ person, who is more masculine than feminine on a spectrum of gender expression
• Neopronoun (noun): A type of gender-neutral pronoun, coined after 1800, and used especially by nonbinary and genderqueer people, as in English ze/hir/hirs,e/em/eirs, or xe/xem/xyrs
• Nounself pronoun (noun): A type of invented gender-neutral pronoun used by some nonbinary and genderqueer people in place of gendered pronouns such as he/himself or she/herself to express a spiritual or personal connection to a specific concept: the nounself pronoun is derived from a word, usually a noun, that is linked to that concept, such as the use of star/starself by people who feel a connection to celestial objects or bun/bunself, derived from bunny, by people who feel a connection to rabbits
• Simp (noun, verb): A person, especially a man, who is excessively attentive or submissive to an object of sexual attraction; To be excessively attentive or submissive, especially to an object of sexual attraction
• Sologamy (noun): The practice or state of marriage to one's self
• Throuple (noun): Three people who are engaged or 
 married to one another, or involved 
 as romantic partners
• Unlabeled (adjective): Noting or relating to a person who does not name their gender or sexuality