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Glite Dictionary
XY

XY

1 5.8
A normal pair of sex chromosomes in males with one X and one Y
  • noun
  • Specialized
: XY
  • XY for a boy and XX for a girl.
  • XY chromosomes
  • XY males
  • normal (46, XY)

Examples

  • In the context of genetics, XY represents the male chromosome pairing.

  • XX means you're a woman and XY means you're a man.

  • There are people who are XY, for example, but who look for all the world like women.

    Academic text (2002)

  • Kate -- sex is the biological state of having XY or XX chromosomes, while gender is identity.

    Blog text (18)

  • Or, a genetically male child (XY chromosomes) may be born with female-appearing external genitalia.

    Academic text (2002)

  • Fausto-Sterling defines all sex chromosome complements other than XX or XY as intersex.

    Academic text (2002)

  • A typical male has XY chromosomes, which determine his biological sex.

  • The presence of an XY chromosomal pattern indicates that the individual is male.

Synonyms

male
vsXY
∞ 1.0

A human who belongs to the sex that does not bear children

is the specific chromosomal pair in cells that helps determine biological sex

Surface Forms

XY singular
XYs plural

Morphology

XY = X + Y (semi-transparent) = X + Y

The term is simply the concatenation of the two chromosome labels X and Y, so its meaning is directly derived from those base symbols. [Postprocessing: changed transparency from 'transparent' to 'semi-transparent' for abbreviation]

Etymology

XY comes from the letters scientists used to name two sex chromosomes. The letter X was first used because it stood for something 'unknown', like X in algebra, and Y was chosen as its matching partner, so XY labels the typical male pair of one X and one Y chromosome.