The Cambridge Dictionary has updated its definition of “woman” to include transgender individuals.
The online dictionary added a supplementary definition in October that includes anyone who “identifies as female” regardless of their sex at birth.
“An adult who lives and identifies as female though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth,” Cambridge added in a secondary description of the meaning of “woman”.
It included two examples of how to correctly use this definition in a sentence.
“She was the first trans woman elected to a national office,” one reads.
“Mary is a woman who was assigned male at birth,” another says.
It comes after the Merrian-Webster dictionary added a supplementary definition of “female” in July that defines the term as “having a gender identity that is the opposite of male”.
The updated definition of the word has sparked a mixed reaction.
Dr Jane Hamlin, president of the Beaumont Society charity which supports transgender and non-binary people, hailed the definition as “clear, concise and correct”.
She told The Telegraph: “ This is such good news. There has been so much misinformation and rubbish written about definitions of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ lately, but these definitions are clear, concise and correct. Congratulations to the Cambridge Dictionary team!”
However, several social media users said they have complained to the online dictionary about the change.
One wrote: “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?”
Cambridge Dictionary has also added a supplementary definition of “man” as “an adult who lives and identifies as male though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth”.
It gives several examples of correct usage of the term, including: “Their doctor encouraged them to live as a man for a while before undergoing surgical transition”.
A spokesperson for the Cambridge Dictionary said: “Our editors made this addition to the entry for woman in October.
“They carefully studied usage patterns of the word woman and concluded that this definition is one that learners of English should be aware of to support their understanding of how the language is used.
“The first definition at the entry for woman remains unchanged and continues to be ‘an adult female human being’.
“Our dictionaries are written for learners of English and are designed to help users understand English as it is currently used. They are compiled by analysing a large corpus of English texts (over two billion words in total) taken from all areas of writing and publishing, which allows us to see exactly how language is used.
“We regularly update our dictionary to reflect changes in how English is used, based on analysis of data from this corpus.”
