Transgender is an umbrella term used for people whose gender identity (self-identification as male, female, intersex, nonbinary, etc.) is different from their assigned sex at birth. As explained by the National Center for Transgender Equality, a transgender girl or woman is a girl or woman whose sex assigned at birth was male, but who understands herself as female. A transgender boy or man is a boy or man whose sex assigned at birth was female, but who understands himself to be male. Some transgender people identify as neither male nor female, or as a combination of/among a spectrum of male and female. There are many terms that people who do not identify as male or female use to describe their gender identity, like androgynous, non-binary or genderqueer.
The opposite of “transgender” is “cisgender,” which describes people whose gender identity matches their assigned sex at birth.
See also: gender identity
[Last updated in September of 2021 by the Wex Definitions Team]
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