sex symbol
13
3.8
- noun
- /sɛks ˈsɪmbəl/
- NSFW
:
símbolo sexual
- Marilyn Monroe was the biggest sex symbol on the planet.
He's an international sex symbol, which has a lot of complication.
- He's an international sex symbol, which has a lot of complication.
- Marilyn Monroe was the biggest sex symbol on the planet.
- And, and Antonio at the time was like, you know, the sex symbol.
Examples
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That was a classic piece, and Churchill was regarded as a sex symbol.
Fiction book (1996) -
Now they are sex symbols, things to be desired, not shunned and feared.
Blog text (33) -
Think about what it means to be a sex symbol.
Blog text (15) -
Why do men need "sex symbols" in the first place?
Blog text (9) -
The rise of the male ideal as a sex symbol has also become prevalent in magazine photographs.
Academic text (2004) -
He's a movie star, a sex symbol.
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But you're an international Latin sex symbol.
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Hollywood's all-time superstar, the greatest sex symbol the screen has ever known.
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Even at the peak of her popularity, Marilyn was considered risqué, a sex symbol, and was not taken seriously.
Blog text (25) -
Marilyn Monroe was widely regarded as a sex symbol in the 1950s.
Synonyms
3
9.6
A woman many people see as very sexually attractive
1
7.4
A person, often a woman, who many people find very sexually attractive
How Sexy
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly compositional: 'symbol' means a representation and 'sex' relates to sexual attractiveness, so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to someone who represents or embodies sexual appeal. This noun–noun construction and the idea of a person representing sexuality is common cross-linguistically, making the overall meaning accessible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The phrase sex symbol may come from the idea of a person becoming a public symbol of sex or sexual attraction. In the mid-1900s the press used 'symbol' to mean a clear image, so calling someone a sex symbol made them the simple picture people think of for 'being sexy'. That's why it now means a person widely seen as very sexually attractive.