--- title: What Cisgender Means description: This adjective had its biggest year yet in 2014 canonical: https://time.com/3636430/cisgender-definition/ author: Katy Steinmetz article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-23T12:00:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:29.218Z og:title: This Is What 'Cisgender' Means og:description: This adjective had its biggest year yet in 2014 og:url: https://time.com/3636430/cisgender-definition/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c4385a618b54eaa/69876f4aa988ca4e2a6ab71b/boy-girl.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5019 og:image:height: 2823 og:image:alt: 450741313 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is What 'Cisgender' Means twitter:description: This adjective had its biggest year yet in 2014 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c4385a618b54eaa/69876f4aa988ca4e2a6ab71b/boy-girl.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is What 'Cisgender' Means > Sponsored content. 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There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=3df0a005-fc91-4287-bdf4-6359a94108e4&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Katy Steinmetz](https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/) ## Katy Steinmetz Dec 23, 2014 12:00 PM UTC  Two babies looking at each other curiously Two babies looking at each other curiously Vladimir Godnik—Getty Images by [Katy Steinmetz](https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/) ## Katy Steinmetz Dec 23, 2014 12:00 PM UTC _Cisgender_ is a word that applies to the vast majority of people, describing a person who is not transgender. If a doctor announces, “It’s a girl!” in the delivery room based on the child’s body and that baby grows up to identify as a woman, that person is cisgender. Similarly, a baby designated male in the delivery room who grows up to identify as a man is cisgender. This is the case for about 99% of the population, at least according to the best available [statistics](http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-we-dont-know-the-size-of-the-transgender-population/). The word exists to serve as an equal to _transgender._ [Author Julia Serano](http://www.amazon.com/Whipping-Girl-Transsexual-Scapegoating-Femininity/dp/1580051545) says the best parallel is to _homosexual_ and _heterosexual_. “There was a time when there were homosexual people and everyone else was considered to be the ‘normal’ people,” she says. “Now people think of themselves as straight or heterosexual.” That adjective probably applies to about 95% of the population, though [people perceive](http://www.gallup.com/poll/6961/what-percentage-population-gay.aspx) the heterosexual population as being much smaller. The prefix _cis-_ is Latin meaning “on this side of,” whereas _trans-_ means “on the other side of.” While _trans-atlantic_ means “on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean,” an American could describe New York or Virginia or the Rocky Mountains as _cis-atlantic_. In general, there aren’t too many places outside of a dictionary or chemistry lab where one would likely see the prefix being used, but _cisgender_ is seeing an uptick in use. (**MORE**: [This Is What Intersex Means](http://time.com/3599950/intersex-meaning/)) In 2013, Oxford Dictionaries—the branch of Oxford that deals with modern usage, words we’re using now and how we use them—added _cisgender_ to their ranks. Stephen Colbert joked in June that he is “cis-white,” because “I’ve always been comfortable with my birth race.” And in February, Facebook added no less than 10 “cis” terms among their [expanded options for gender](http://techland.time.com/2014/02/14/a-comprehensive-guide-to-facebooks-new-options-for-gender-identity/), ranging from plain _cis_ to _cis male_ to _cis woman._ This graph from Google Trends shows how often people have searched for the term over time: People who use the word to describe themselves are often sending two messages: A) I’m hip to gender politics and B) I believe people are all the same when it comes to being normal and legitimate, even if their experience of gender identity is different. But there is no consensus on who should use the term or when. Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, believes that trying to introduce the word _cisgender_ into more vocabularies when many people still don’t really understand _transgender_ is counterproductive for their cause_._ “It does not help us as advocates,” she says, “changing the language.” Other leaders in the trans community, like Serano, feel the word is useful in spreading the idea that even if the vast majority of people are not transgender, they too have a gender identity; it’s just not one that is challenged or questioned. No one should have to identify themselves as cisgender all the time, just as “people don’t go around all the time thinking of themselves as a straight woman or a heterosexual man,” she says. “But it becomes useful when you’re talking about the ways in which people are treated differently in society.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3636430/cisgender-definition/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3636430/cisgender-definition/"},"headline":"This Is What 'Cisgender' Means","datePublished":"2014-12-23T12:00:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:29.218Z","description":"This adjective had its biggest year yet in 2014","url":"https://time.com/3636430/cisgender-definition/","keywords":["Living","society","LGBT","language","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c4385a618b54eaa/69876f4aa988ca4e2a6ab71b/boy-girl.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katy Steinmetz","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c4385a618b54eaa/69876f4aa988ca4e2a6ab71b/boy-girl.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"450741313","caption":"Two babies looking at each other curiously","creditText":"Vladimir Godnik—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3636430/cisgender-definition/","name":"This Is What 'Cisgender' Means"}}]}] ```