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A glossary of sexual terms

Starting with letters S to Z

Sponsored link.

Definitions of sexual terms starting with letters S to Z:

Safe sex: Sexual activity that is completely free of risk for STD. It is non-existent.

Safer sex: Sexual activity in which the risk for STD has been greatly reduced to an acceptable level.

Sex: Two meanings:

	The definition of a person as male or female, based on their physical appearance and/or primary sexual characteristics. In almost all people, their sex and their gender are the same. For a minority, they differ.
	To engage in a sexual act.

Sex reassignment therapy: The use of hormones and perhaps sex reassignment surgery to help a transsexual change their appearance from the sex that they were identified with at birth to the opposite sex that they feel they truly are.

Serial monogamy: The concept of having multiple sexual partners over a lifetime, in a sequence of committed relationships.

Sexual act: This is not a well defined term. Most would define it as including all oral, anal, vaginal, and manual activity which has as its goal of arousing a person. Many teens do not include oral sex as a sexual act. Thus, they might consider themselves to be abstinent, even though they engage in oral sex.

Sexual orientation: Some religious and social conservatives define as many as 30 different sexual orientations. The rest of the world has reached a near consensus that there are three sexual orientations: heterosexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality.

Sharing: When used in a sexual sense: multiple couples while together in the same area who perform sexual acts with their own spouses.

Sodomy:

	Historical origin: A resident of Sodom, a town in the middle east that was allegedly destroyed by God.
	Legal usage: One of a list of sexual activities other than penile-vaginal intercourse that is criminalized within a political jurisdiction.
	Religious conservatives: Some use the term as a synonym for anal intercourse.

Sperm: Male reproductive cells. Single: spermatozoon.

STD: Any disease transmitted by bacterium, fungus, parasite or virus primarily during sexual contact.

Stillbirth: An event in which an embryo, or a fetus after the 24th week of gestation, dies from natural causes and is expelled from the woman's body.

Swinging: In a sexual sense, the temporary exchange of sexual partners between two or more committed couples, usually performed under strict rules.

Teleiopilia: A condition in which an adult, usually male, is sexually attracted to both adults and, under some circumstances, to children.

Transgendered (a.k.a. TG): This word has multiple meanings:

A person who experiences gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder. They identify themselves as experiencing gender identity that is is in conflict with their genetic gender. Thus, their gender expression or physical characteristics may differ from their sex as assigned at birth.

Some consider Transgendered to be an umbrella term which includes:

	Preoperative transsexuals.
	Postoperative transsexuals.
	Nonoperative transsexuals.
	Transgenderists: persons living full-time in a gender other than their birth sex.
	Cross dressers: persons who occasionally present themselves as the opposite sex. (Transvestite is a synonym, but is regarded by many cross dressers as a pejorative term). The vast majority are heterosexual men.
	"Mannish" women and "feminine" men whose gender expression is opposite to their sex.
	Intersexed persons who are born with genitals that are not typically male or typically female. They are frequently defined as male or female at birth. However, they often develop physically or have a gender identity in opposition to their assigned gender. See above.

Transsexual (a.k.a. transexual, TS, transsexed, transidentity, trans, tranny, T-folk, trans folk): As for the term "transgendered," there is no consensus on the precise meaning of this term.

	One common definition is that a transsexual is a transgendered person who experiences severe gender dysphoria and feels they can "no longer continue to live their lives in the gender associated with the physical sex they were assigned at birth. " ₄
	Some restrict the term to including only those undergo hormone therapy and/or sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) in order to more closely appear to be of the sex that they feel they are.

Additional factors:

Some transsexuals consider the term trans and tranny to be offensive.

Some post-operative transsexuals do not refer to themselves as transsexuals; they regard themselves as having become either male or female and identify themselves accordingly.

Some prefer the term transgendered as superior to transsexual because gender identity is all about gender, not sex.

Transvestic fetishism: A psychiatric condition in which a person -- almost always a male heterosexual -- is significantly distressed by a recurrent sexual arousal due to thoughts or practices of cross dressing.

Transvestite: Another term for "cross-dresser." The term transvestite is regarded by many cross dressers as a pejorative term. We recommend that it never be used.

Triad: In a sexual sense, this refers to sexual activity by three persons, whether in a committed or casual relationship.

Virgin: A person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse.

Yoni: Sanskrit for "sacred space" or "sacred temple." Refers to a woman's vagina.

Zygote: A form of life with human DNA originating as a fertilized ovum, and which has not yet been implanted in the uterus.

References used:

"Discrimination Against Transgendered People In America," The International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy (ICTLEP), at: http://www.qrd.org/. See also: http://web.telecom.cz/

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Copyright � 2003 to 2007 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2003-DEC-11
Latest update: 2007-AUG-26
Author: B.A. Robinson

A glossary of sexual terms

Starting with letters S to Z

Definitions of sexual terms starting with letters S to Z:

References used:

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