Multiple Genders
Multiple Genders · 8 entries
Holding more than one gender, at once or in alternation. The count is what separates these six from each other and from everything else in the catalogue: Bigender is two, Trigender is three, Polygender is several, Pangender is a vast range, and Multigender is the umbrella over all of them. The distinction that matters most is inside the group rather than at its edge, because Ambigender is specifically static, two genders held together without shifting, which is what marks it off from bigender in alternation.
None of this is fluidity. A gender that moves between states is genderfluid and a gender whose intensity rises and falls is genderflux, and holding several at once is a third thing entirely. The entries here say so individually because the confusion is constant. The counts are not always stable in the sources, since one glossary defines trigender as three and another as three or more, and the entries report those disagreements rather than picking. And pangender's own sources are careful that a vast range means the genders within a person's culture and life experience rather than literally every gender that exists, which is a restriction the popular summaries drop.
In this category
All 8 multiple genders
8 entries
- AmbigenderTwo genders held at once and held still, the static case bigender also covers, attested in a transgender community magazine as early as 1993.
- BigenderTwo gender identities held together or in turn, with a record that starts in 1990s community magazines and a Merriam-Webster entry behind it.
- MaxigenderA large claim with a ceiling written into it: as many genders as one life reaches. Proposed against pangender, and documented only in other terms' entries.
- MultigenderThe umbrella over bigender, trigender, polygender, pangender and ambigender: more than one gender identity, held all at once or taken in turn.
- OmnigenderAlmost every gender rather than all of them, plus an older adjective meaning unisex and a 2001 theology book. Three senses, and glossaries rarely mark which.
- PangenderA vast range of genders rather than literally all of them: the sources limit the range to a person's own culture and experience, and argue about it.
- PolygenderSeveral genders rather than one, though nobody agrees how many. It was an umbrella for everyone outside the binary in 1998 and has been rare in print since.
- TrigenderThree gender identities, held together or taken in turn, with any three genders allowed. Fourteen people claimed the word in the 2019 Gender Census.
Keep going
The other categories
- Gender Around the WorldThis is the largest group in the catalogue, and the one most readers arrive at by searching for a third gender.
- Pronouns & Forms of AddressThe words in this group do not name a kind of person.
- Gender Expression & PresentationWhat these gender expression terms report is presentation, stance and the scene a person comes from, rather than an answer to the question of what their gender is. [[butch]] is the clearest case: Wikipedia files it inside the lesbian subculture, with its own traits, behaviours and styles, and the word grew out of working-class bar culture in the 1940s, not out of any theory of identity. [[genderpunk|Genderpunk]] and gender bending belong here for a related reason, since both describe an active stance against a norm.
- Trans & Binary IdentitiesMan, woman, trans and cis: every term for the relation between a person and the sex recorded for them at birth.
Common questions
Questions about multiple genders
Can somebody really have more than one gender at once?
That is the claim every term on this page makes, and the sources describe it as simultaneity rather than alternation in most cases. The genders are held together rather than swapped between, which is what separates this group from fluidity, where one gender gives way to another over time.
What is the difference between bigender and ambigender?
Ambigender is the static case: exactly two genders held at the same time, without shifting between them. Bigender covers that and also covers alternation, where a person moves between their two genders. The narrower word exists because the wider one did not distinguish the two situations.
Does pangender mean every gender that exists?
No, and the sources are careful about it. Pangender covers a vast or all-encompassing range of genders within the person's own culture and life experience, which is a real restriction. Popular summaries drop that qualifier and produce a claim nobody in the community makes.
How many genders does polygender mean?
The sources disagree. One community wiki says more than one, the same wiki's umbrella article says four or more, and a Guardian piece says only multiple genders. The entry reports the disagreement and places the term above bigender and below pangender by usage rather than asserting a floor nobody agrees on.
Are these terms old?
Older than most people expect. Bigender appears in a transgender community magazine in 1992, ambigender in another in 1993, polygender in a dictionary in 1995 and again in a 1998 internet community, and trigender in Leslie Feinberg's Trans Liberation around 1999. None of this group is a recent coinage.