What does sexed mean?
Sexed is an adjective, used most often for a person or character with conspicuous sexual desires, behavior, or appeal. In this sense, it often carries a literary, critical, or occasionally humorous tone and may imply that sexuality dominates the subject's character. For example, a reviewer might describe a protagonist as highly sexed, emphasizing both the character's drive and the prominence of sexual themes in the narrative. In biology and related sciences, sexed has a more technical meaning: characteristic of an organism whose sex or sexual characteristics can be distinguished, or possessing identifiable sexual organs. The word is less common in modern everyday English because speakers can usually use sexual, sexually driven, or a more precise alternative. It should not be confused with sexual, which is a broader and generally more neutral term, although the two can overlap considerably in meaning.
Having conspicuous sexual characteristics, desires, or tendencies; in biology, characterized by sexual differences or the presence of sexual organs.
"Critics found the central character energetic and highly sexed."
The general sense is common in literary criticism and informal description; the biological sense is technical.
The simple past tense and past participle of sex.
"The researchers sexed the specimens before recording their measurements."
This form is straightforward inflection of the verb sex.
Sexed can describe both conspicuous human desire and the biological traits that distinguish male and female organisms.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does sexed come from?
Sexed was formed in English by adding the suffix -ed to sex, following the pattern of adjectives such as colored and shaped. Sex itself entered Middle English from Latin sexus, an old term for sex or kind, ultimately associated with the Latin verb secare, “to cut or separate.” Modern senses of both sex and sexed reflect later developments in sexual vocabulary and, in biological usage, the classification of organisms by reproductive characteristics.
How sexed is actually used
The adjective is most often used to characterize a person's sexual drive or behavior and may sound somewhat informal or literary. Its biological use is more technical and is less common outside specialist contexts. As a verb form, sexed is the simple past tense and past participle of sex.
Easily confused with sexed
Sexed is usually an adjective describing someone or something as having conspicuous sexual characteristics, whereas sexual is the broader, more neutral adjective relating to sex.
Sex can be a noun meaning biological sex or sexual activity, and it is also the base form of the verb; sexed is chiefly an adjective and can also be the past tense and past participle of sex.