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Glite Dictionary
primary sexual characteristic

primary sexual characteristic

7.6
A body part you are born with that is used to make babies, like genitals
  • noun
  • /ˈpraɪˌmɛri ˈsɛkʃuəl ˌkɛrɪktəˈrɪstɪk/
  • Specialized
translation icon : característica sexual primaria
  • The primary sexual characteristics of males include the presence of testes and a penis.

Examples

  • Doctors assess primary sexual characteristics to determine the sex of newborns.

  • At birth, males and females exhibit different primary sexual characteristics related to their reproductive organs.

  • Given testosterone's role in producing primary male sexual characteristics, perhaps a hormone related to the expression of female primary sexual characteristics may be linked to dominance.

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Synonyms

primary sex characteristic
vsprimary sexual characteristic
  • Specialized
5.2

A body part you are born with that helps make babies, like genitals or ovaries

is a birth feature that is essential for reproduction rather than merely involved
primary sex character
vsprimary sexual characteristic
  • Specialized
8.8

Body parts used for having babies, like genitals, that show if someone is male or female

focuses on being essential for reproduction rather than on genetic male female distinction

Surface Forms

primary sexual characteristic singular
primary sexual characteristics plural

Morphology

primary + sexual + characteristic

The meaning is directly built from its parts: 'primary' (main), 'sexual' (relating to sex/reproduction) and 'characteristic' (a feature), so a learner who knows those words can infer it refers to the main sex-related feature(s) such as genitals. This is a compositional, non-idiomatic medical/biological term with clear cross-linguistic parallels, making it immediately understandable to a B1 learner familiar with the constituent words.

Etymology

Primary sexual characteristic describes the body parts you are born with that are needed to make babies. Primary means 'present at birth', sexual means about sex or reproduction, and characteristic means 'a trait', so the phrase points to the body's first reproductive parts.