Cis is short for cisgender. It describes someone whose gender is “exclusively the one they were assigned at birth,” in the words of the Trans Journalists Association stylebook. A cis woman was assigned female at birth and is a woman. It is the counterpart to transgender, and it says nothing about who you’re attracted to.
The word’s history is messier than its definition. In a 2017 history for the American Historical Association’s Perspectives on History, Avery Dame reported that the Oxford English Dictionary cites a 1994 post to the Usenet group alt.transgendered by Dana Leland Defosse. That is an early documented use, not proof that nobody said it first.
Cisgender Definition in the TJA and NLGJA Stylebooks
The TJA stylebook closes off the usual dodges. Its cisgender entry says to use the word “rather than normal, typical, etc.” when contrasting trans people with the broader non-trans population. NLGJA’s Stylebook on LGBTQ+ Terminology says the word distinguishes people by gender identity “without implying that cisgender is the neutral or normal state.”
TJA calls cis for cisgender “the direct equivalent to using trans for transgender.” It also acknowledges that “some cisgender people object to its use.” NLGJA lists cisgender as an adjective and says it is acceptable to shorten it to cis on later references. Its entry also covers cishet, shorthand for cisgender and heterosexual, and warns it “can be pejorative, so use with caution.”
Latin Roots: Cis- Means ‘On This Side’
The Latin prefix cis- means “on this side,” while trans- means “across” or “on the other side,” as Dame’s history explains. Chemists use the same pairing for molecules. In cisgender, the prefix describes a relationship to gender, not a sexual orientation.
Who Coined Cisgender? Defosse, Buijs and German Sexology
Defosse, now a retired researcher, described the post in a 2023 HuffPost op-ed that Global News quoted. She wrote that she was asking for views on transphobia and inclusion on the University of Minnesota campus. She borrowed the prefix from chemistry, where atoms grouped on the same side of a molecule get the label cis.
She isn’t the only claimant. Dame noted that “some sources (for many years, Wikipedia among them)” credit Carl Buijs, a Dutch transgender man, with coining the word in 1995, and that Buijs himself supports that account. Defosse wasn’t named as a possible originator until someone added her post to Wikipedia in 2006. Dame also traced cis and trans pairings for gender nonconformity in German sexological writing “as early as 1914.”
The meaning moved, too. Dame found that 1990s Usenet posters used cisgender for anyone whose gender presentation and sex were aligned, “even transsexuals who’d had or desired sex reassignment surgery.” The shift to a definition built on sex assigned at birth came as more non-trans people adopted the word. Dame credits Julia Serano’s 2007 book Whipping Girl with popularizing it. Serano cites a 2002 post by feminist author Emi Koyama as her inspiration.
The Oxford English Dictionary added cisgender in its June 2015 update, Euronews reported at the time. Merriam-Webster added it to its unabridged dictionary in April 2016, ABC News reported, quoting lexicographer Emily Brewster on readers who criticized the additions. Dictionary inclusion records a word’s established use. It does not mark the day the word was invented.
Cis vs. Trans, Nonbinary and Intersex at a Glance
| Term | What it describes |
|---|---|
| Cisgender (cis) | Gender is exclusively the one assigned at birth |
| Transgender (trans) | Gender isn’t exclusively the one assigned at birth |
| Nonbinary | Genders other than man and woman, generally not considered cisgender |
| Intersex | Born with sex traits that don’t fit strict binary definitions, and can be any gender |
| Cishet | Cisgender and heterosexual, which NLGJA says can be pejorative |
TJA’s nonbinary entry calls nonbinary “an umbrella term for genders other than man and woman.” It says nonbinary people “are generally not considered cisgender,” but “not everyone who is nonbinary considers themselves trans.” So don’t call a nonbinary person trans unless they describe themself that way. Our explainer on what nonbinary means goes deeper.
TJA’s intersex entry says “intersex people can be any gender and may or may not consider themselves trans.” Being intersex is about sex traits. Being cis or trans is about gender.
Is Cis a Slur?
No. NLGJA’s stylebook says “cisgender is a neutral term, though some opponents of transgender rights attempt to portray it as a slur.” Like transgender, it is an adjective: a cisgender person, a cis woman or a cis man. It does not mean heterosexual. A gay man can be cisgender, and a straight woman can be transgender.
The best-known attempt came on June 21, 2023, when Elon Musk posted on Twitter that “the words ‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ are considered slurs on this platform,” Global News reported. Asked whether that held if someone called themselves cisgender, Musk replied, “Call yourself anything you want.” A platform policy doesn’t change a word’s definition. Tone and context still matter when you’re talking to or about someone. More on that in our piece on whether a man and a cis man are different.
Critiques of Cisgender From Style Guides and Intersex Advocates
Not every objection comes from opponents of trans rights. The Diversity Style Guide offers a plainer phrase. Its entry says “a more widely understood way to describe people who are not transgender is simply to say non-transgender people.”
Intersex activist Hida Viloria raised a different objection. In an Aug. 18, 2014, essay titled “Caught in the Gender Binary Blind Spot: Intersex Erasure in Cisgender Rhetoric,” Viloria wrote about how “current cisgender rhetoric facilitates intersex erasure.” Dame’s critique is historical: the tidy cis and trans pairing, Dame argues, became a “familiar political binary” that outlasted the more radical critique of 1990s trans politics that produced the word.
How Many People Are Cisgender? What Pew and Gallup Found
No survey counts cisgender people directly. They count trans and nonbinary people, and the rest is inference. Pew Research Center’s May 2022 survey of 10,188 U.S. adults found 1.6% were transgender or nonbinary. Among adults under 30, the figure was 5.1%.
Pew’s Anna Brown laid out the two questions behind it. One asked, “What sex were you assigned at birth, on your original birth certificate?” The second asked, “Do you describe yourself as a man, a woman, nonbinary or in some other way?”
Gallup’s newer numbers use a different question. Its February 2026 report, based on 2025 interviews with 13,454 U.S. adults, found 1.1% identified as transgender. Because the surveys measure different things, don’t stack them into one tidy cisgender percentage.
Cis Meaning FAQ: Slurs, Origins and Who Counts as Cis
What Does Cis Mean?
Cis is short for cisgender. It describes a person whose gender is the one they were assigned at birth, such as a woman who was assigned female at birth. It’s the counterpart to transgender.
Is Cis a Slur?
No. NLGJA calls cisgender a neutral term and notes that some opponents of trans rights try to portray it as a slur. The word does not describe sexual orientation.
Who Coined the Word Cisgender?
The OED cites a 1994 Usenet post by Dana Leland Defosse. Historian Avery Dame also documents a separate claim for Carl Buijs in 1995 and cis and trans pairings in German writing from 1914. Earliest recorded use and a definitive invention date are not the same thing.
Can a Gay Man Be Cisgender?
Yes. A gay man assigned male at birth is a cis gay man. Cisgender describes gender identity, not orientation.
Are Nonbinary People Cisgender?
Generally no, according to TJA’s stylebook. But not every nonbinary person considers themself trans, so use the words each person uses.
When Was Cisgender Added to the Dictionary?
The Oxford English Dictionary added cisgender in June 2015. Merriam-Webster added it to its unabridged dictionary in April 2016.
