オス

Japanese

Etymology

The katakana rendering of 雄 (osu, “male”, for non-human contexts).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) オス [òsúꜜ] (Odaka – [2])
• IPA^(key): [o̞sɨ]

Alternative forms

• 雄, 牡

Noun

オス • (osu) 

1. (biology, non-human) male

Usage notes

The term osu refers to male with regard to non-human organisms.

The katakana spelling is more common in biology contexts. Of the kanji spellings, 雄 appears to be somewhat more common.

Synonyms

• (human male): 男性(だんせい) (dansei)

Antonyms

• (non-human female): メス (mesu)
• (human female): 女性(じょせい) (josei)