homosexuality

English

LGBTI flag

Etymology

From homosexual +‎ -ity or homo- +‎ sexuality

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ælɪti

Noun

homosexuality (usually uncountable, plural homosexualities)

1. The state of being sexually attracted primarily or exclusively to persons of the same sex.
2. Sexual activity with a person of the same sex.

Usage notes

Homosexuality in women is also known as lesbianism. As homosexuality applies to people of either sex, the expression homosexuality and lesbianism is redundant and is best replaced by homosexuality or lesbianism alone as appropriate. Different cultural constructions of same-sex love are collectively referred to as homosexualities.

Synonyms

• gayness
• homosexualism
• lesbianism (applied only to women)
• uranism (obsolete)
• urningism (obsolete)

Antonyms

• heterosexuality
• straightness (slang)

Hypernyms

• queerness

Coordinate terms

• (sexual orientations) sexual orientation; asexual (-ity, ace), bisexual (-ity, bi), demisexual (-ity, demi), graysexual (-ity), heterosexual (-ity, straight), homosexual (-ity, gay, lesbian), omnisexual (-ity), pansexual (-ity, pan), plurisexual (-ity), polysexual (-ity), robosexual (-ity), sapiosexual (-ity), androsexual (-ity), gynesexual (-ity) ^{(Category: en:Sexual orientations)}

Related terms

• homosexual
• homoromanticism
• homoflexibility

Translations

sexual orientation

• Afrikaans: homoseksualiteit
• Albanian: homoseksualitet m, homoseksualizëm (sq) m
• Arabic: مِثْلِيَّة‎ f (miṯliyya), مِثْلِيَّة جِنْسِيَّة‎ f (miṯliyya jinsiyya), هُومُوسِكْسُوَالِيَّة‎ f (homoseksuwāliyya), هُومُوسِكْسُوَالِيَّة‎ f (homoseksuwāliyya)

  Egyptian Arabic: هوموسكسواليه‎ f (homoseksuwālíyya)

• Armenian: համասեռամոլություն (hy) (hamaseṙamolutʿyun)
• Assamese: সমকামিতা (xomkamita)
• Asturian: homosexualidá f
• Avar: гомосексуаллъи (gomoseksualłi)
• Azerbaijani: homoseksualizm, homoseksuallıq

  South Azerbaijani: همجینسچی‌لیک‎

• Banjarese: homoseksualitas
• Bashkir: гомосексуализм m (gomoseksualizm)
• Basque: homosexualitate (eu)
• Bavarian: Homosexualität
• Belarusian: гомасексуалі́зм m (homasjeksualízm), гомасэксуалі́зм m (homaseksualízm), гомасексуальнасць f (hómasjeksualʹnascʹ), гомасэксуальнасьць f (hómaseksualʹnasʹcʹ)
• Bengali: সমকামিতা (śômkamita)
• Bihari: समलैंगिकता
• Breton: heñvelrevelezh
• Bulgarian: хомосексуа́лност f (homoseksuálnost)
• Burmese: လိင်တူဆက်ဆံခြင်း (lingtuhcakhcamhkrang:)
• Catalan: homosexualitat f
• Cebuano: homosekswalidad
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 同性戀, 同性恋 (tung⁴ sing³ lyun²)

  Gan: 同性戀, 同性恋

  Literary Chinese: 同性戀

  Mandarin: 同性戀 (zh), 同性恋 (zh) (tóngxìngliàn)

  Min Dong: 同性戀, 同性恋 (dùng-séng-luông)

  Min Nan: 同性戀, 同性恋 (tông-sèng-loân), 同性愛, 同性爱 (tông-sèng-ài)

  Wu: 同性媾

• Chuvash: гомосексуаллӑх (gomoseksuallăh)
• Classical Nahuatl: cuilonyōtl
• Czech: homosexualita (cs) f
• Danish: homoseksualitet (da) c
• Doteli: समलैंगिकता (samlaiṅgikatā)
• Dutch: homoseksualiteit (nl) f
• Emilian: omosesuêl
• Esperanto: samseksemo
• Estonian: homoseksuaalsus (et), homoseksualism, samasooiharus
• Faroese: samkyndleiki
• Finnish: homoseksuaalisuus (fi), homous (fi), homoseksualismi (fi)
• French: homosexualité (fr) f
• Galician: homosexualidade (gl) f
• Georgian: ჰომოსექსუალობა (homoseksualoba), ჰომოსექსუალიზმი (homoseksualizmi), მამათმავლობა (mamatmavloba)
• German: Homosexualität (de) f

  Alemannic German: Homosexualität

• Gilaki: همجنس‌خأيي‎ (hamjensxākī)
• Greek: ομοφυλοφιλία (el) f (omofylofilía)

  Ancient: κιναιδία f (kinaidía), ἀρσενοκοιτία (arsenokoitía)

• Greenlandic: suiaqatinik atoqateqartarneq
• Gujarati: સમલિંગી (samliṅgī), હોમોસેક્સ્યુઅલ (homoseksyuala)
• Hausa: kishili
• Hebrew: הוֹמוֹסֶקְסוּאָלִיּוּת‎ f (homoseksuáliut)
• Hindi: समलैंगिकता (samlaiṅgiktā)
• Hungarian: homoszexualitás (hu)
• Icelandic: samkynhneigð f
• Ido: homeosexualeso (io)
• Indonesian: homoseksualitas (id)
• Interlingua: homosexualitate
• Irish: homaighnéasachas m, homaighnéasacht f
• Italian: omosessualità (it) f
• Japanese: 同性愛 (ja) (どうせいあい, dōseiai), ホモセクシャリティ (homosekushariti)
• Kannada: ಸಲಿಂಗ ಕಾಮ (saliṅga kāma)
• Kazakh: гомосексуалдылық (gomosekswaldılıq)
• Korean: 동성애 (ko) (dongseong-ae) (同性愛 (ko))
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ھاوڕەگەزخوازی‎ (hawrregezixwazî), ھاوڕەگەزبازی‎ (hawrregezbazî), ھۆمۆسێکشواڵتی‎ (homosêkişwalltî)

  Northern Kurdish: homoseksûalîte, hevzayendîtî, homoseksuelî

• Kyrgyz: гомосексуалдуулук (gomoseksualduuluk)

• Ladino: omoseksualita
• Latin: homosexualitas f
• Latvian: homoseksualitāte (lv) f, homoseksuālisms (lv)
• Ligurian: omosessualitæ
• Limburgish: homoseksualiteit
• Lithuanian: homoseksualumas (lt)
• Lombard: omosessüalitaa f
• Low German:

  Dutch Low Saxon: homoseksualiteit

• Luxembourgish: Homosexualitéit (lb)
• Macedonian: хомосексуалност f (homoseksualnost)
• Maithili: समलैङ्गिकता (samalaiṅgikatā)
• Malagasy: fahapelahana
• Malayalam: സ്വവർഗ്ഗരതി (svavarggarati)
• Maltese: omosesswalità f
• Maori: he nonofo
• Mazanderani: همجنس‌گرایی‎ (hamjensgarâ)
• Mirandese: homossexualidade
• Nahuatl: cuilonyōtl
• Neapolitan: ommosessualità
• Nepali: समलैंगिकता (samlaiṅgikatā)
• Newar: समलैङ्गिकता (samalaiṅgikatā)
• Norman: homosexualité f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: homoseksualitet m, homofili

  Nynorsk: homofili

• Persian: هم‌جنس‌گرایی‎ (fa) (ham-jens-garâyi)
• Piedmontese: omossessualità f
• Polish: homoseksualizm (pl) m
• Portuguese: homossexualidade (pt) f, homossexualismo (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਸਮਲਿੰਗੀ (samliṅgī)
• Romanian: homosexualitate (ro) f, хомосексуалитате
• Russian: гомосексуа́льность (ru) f (gomosɛksuálʹnostʹ), гомосексуали́зм (ru) m (gomosɛksualízm)
• Sami:

  Northern Sami: homoseksualitehta

• Sardinian: omosessualidade
• Scottish Gaelic: co-sheòrsachd f, fearas-feise m (literally “masculine coitus”) (slang), banas-feise f (literally “feminine coitus”) (slang)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: хомосексуа́лно̄ст f

  Roman: homoseksuálnōst (sh) f

• Shona: ungochani
• Sicilian: omosessualità f, omusissualità (scn) f
• Silesian: buzeranctwo
• Sindhi: هم جنس پرست‎ (ham jins parasata)
• Sinhalese: සමලිංගිකතාව (samaliṁgikatāwa)
• Slovak: homosexualita (sk) f
• Slovene: homoseksualnost (sl) f
• Somali: khaniisnimada
• Sotho: bosodoma
• Spanish: homosexualidad (es) f, homosexualismo m
• Swahili: ushoga (sw) 14
• Swedish: homosexualitet (sv) c
• Tagalog: homoseksuwalidad
• Tajik: ҳамҷинсгароӣ (tg) (hamjinsgaroyī), гомосексуализм m (gomoseksualizm)
• Tamil: ஓரினச்சேர்க்கை (ōriṉaccērkkai), தற்பால்சேர்க்கை (taṟpālcērkkai)
• Tatar: гомосексуализм m (ğomoseksualizm), һомосексуальлек (homoseksual’lek)
• Telugu: స్వలింగ సంపర్కం (te) (svaliṅga samparkaṃ)
• Thai: รักร่วมเพศ (rák-rûuam-pêet)
• Turkish: eşcinsellik (tr), homoseksüellik (tr)
• Ukrainian: гомосексуа́льність (uk) f (homoseksuálʹnistʹ), гомосексуалі́зм m (homoseksualízm)
• Urdu: ہم جنس پرستی‎ (hum jins parasti)
• Uzbek: gomoseksuallik
• Vietnamese: tính tình dục đồng giới, đồng tính luyến ái (vi) (同性戀愛)
• Waray-Waray: homoseksuwalidad
• Welsh: gwrywgydiaeth, cyfunrywioldeb
• West Flemish: homoseksualiteit
• West Frisian: homoseksualiteit
• Yiddish: האָמאָסעקסואַלוטעט‎ f (homoseksualutet)
• Yoruba: ilopọ
• Zazaki: hemcınsbaz
• Zulu: isitabane

See also

• LGBT, GLBT
• gay
• lesbian