homosexuality

English

LGBTI flag

Etymology

homosexual +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ælɪti

Noun

homosexuality (usually uncountable, plural homosexualities)

1. The state of being sexually and romantically 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, queerness
• homosexualism
• lesbianism (applied only to women)
• uranism (rare)

Antonyms

• heterosexuality
• straightness (slang)

Hyponyms

• 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: гомасексуалізм m (homasjeksualízm), гомасэксуалізм m (homaseksualízm), гомасексуальнасць f (hómasjeksualʹnascʹ), гомасэксуальнасьць f (hómaseksualʹnasʹcʹ)
• Bengali: সমকামিতা (sômôkamita)
• Bihari: समलैंगिकता (samlaiṅgiktā)
• Breton: heñvelrevelezh
• Bulgarian: хомосексуалност 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: dùng-séng-luông

  Min Nan: tông-sèng-loân, tông-sèng-ài

  Wu: 同性媾

• Chuvash: гомосексуаллăх (gomoseksuallăh)
• Classical Nahuatl: cuilonyōtl
• Czech: homosexualita (cs) f
• Danish: homoseksualitet (da) c
• Doteli: समलैंगिकता (samalaĩgikatā)
• 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: 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: homoseksûalîte, hevzayendîtî, homoseksuelî

  Central Kurdish: هاوڕه‌گه‌زخوازی‎‎ (hawrregezxwazî), هاوڕه‌گه‌زبازی‎‎ (hawrregezbazî), هۆمۆسێکشواڵتی‎‎ (homosêkşwalltî)

• 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 (homoseksuálnost)
• 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 (samalaĩgikatā)
• Newari: 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 (homosexualitate) (Moldovan)
• Russian: гомосексуа́льность (ru) f (gomosɛksuálʹnostʹ), гомосексуали́зм (ru) m (gomosɛksualízm)
• Sami:

  Northern Sami: homoseksualitehta

• Sardinian: omosessualidade
• Scottish Gaelic: co-sheòrsachd f, fearas-feise m ("masculine coitus", slang), banas-feise f ("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 (samaliṁgikatāva)
• Slovak: homosexualita (sk) f
• Slovene: homoseksualnost (sl) f
• Somali: khaniisnimada
• Sotho: bosodoma
• Spanish: homosexualidad (es) f, homosexualismo m
• Swahili: ushoga (sw) class 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: гомосексуальність f (homoseksuáľnisť), гомосексуалі́зм (uk) m (homoseksualízm)
• Urdu: ہم جنس پرستی‎‎ (hum jins parasti)
• Uzbek: gomoseksuallik
• Vietnamese: tính tình dục đồng giới, đồng tính luyến ái (vi)
• Waray-Waray: homoseksuwalidad
• Welsh: gwrywgydiaeth, cyfunrywioldeb
• West Flemish: homoseksualiteit
• West Frisian: homoseksualiteit
• Yiddish: האָמאָסעקסואַלוטעט‎‎ f (homoseksualutet)
• Yoruba: ilopọ
• Zazaki: hemcınsbaz
• Zulu: isitabane

See also

• (sexual orientations) sexual orientation; asexual (-ity, ace), bisexual (-ity, bi), demisexual (-ity), 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)
• homosexual
• gay
• lesbian
• GLBT