Organism Attribute
sex Audio
sex [ seks ]
Subclass of:
Reproductive Physiological Phenomena
Definitions related to sex:
  • Phenotypic expression of chromosomal makeup that defines a study subject as male, female, or other. Compare to gender.
    CDISC Terminology
    Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC), 2021
  • An arbitrary categorization of individuals based on the assemblage of physical properties related to reproduction, and commonly associated with the designation of such categories as female and male. This designation is based on a combination of observable information from organ inventories, morphological assessments, hormone assessments, genetic testing, observed primary and secondary sex characteristics, menstrual status, and/or obstetric history. Current sex designation may or may not be the same as an individual's sex assigned or reported at birth.
    NCI
    U.S. National Cancer Institute, 2021
  • The totality of characteristics of reproductive structure, functions, PHENOTYPE, and GENOTYPE, differentiating the MALE from the FEMALE organism.
    NLM Medical Subject Headings
    U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2025
  • Totality of characteristics of reproductive structure, functions, phenotype, and genotype, differentiating the male from the female organism; do not confuse with the act of sex, which is indexed with SEX BEHAVIOR.
    CRISP Thesaurus
    National Institutes of Health, 2006
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This content should not be used in place of medically-reviewed decision support reference material or professional medical advice. Some terms may have alternate or updated definitions not reflected in this set. The definitions on this page should not be considered complete or up to date.