Cambridge Dictionary updates definition of ‘woman’ to include transgender people

In October, the Cambridge dictionary expanded its definition of ‘woman’ to include anyone who “identifies as female” regardless of what sex they were born as.

The dictionary’s full supplementary definition of what it means to be a woman states, “An adult who lives and identifies as female though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth.”

A spokesperson for the dictionary said that the editors took the decision to include the definition after they “studied usage patterns of the word woman”.

It also follows the Merrian-Webster dictionary which, in July, decided to insert an additional definition to the meaning of ‘female’ and added the description, “having a gender identity that is the opposite of male”.

One social media user voiced their concerns about the additional descriptions, stating, “this validates the idea that anyone can identify as anything that they want to, in this case the opposite sex. Can we identify as disabled, another nationality or another race? Where does this end?”

The Cambridge Dictionary also included an extra definition of ‘man’ to include, “an adult who lives and identifies as male though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth.”