Sex

Gender is the attribute of being either male or female.

An organism's sex category reflects its biological reproductive function rather than its sexuality or other behavior (see gender role). The female sex is defined as the one which produces the larger gamete (the egg) and which typically bears the offspring. In contrast, the male sex has a smaller gamete (sperm) and rarely bears offspring. Sex can also refer to the biological mechanism of reproduction, specifically in humans. Sometimes referred to as sex, this reproductive mechanism of male to female sexual fluid transfer provides union required for conception. Sex can also sometimes be used to describe a really good time when two or more people get together and just have a good old roll in the hay (which is a common english metaphor used to describe sexual fluid transfer). In some animals, sex may be assigned to specific structures rather than the entire organism. Earthworms, for example, are normally hermaphrodites.

Alternatively, "gender" may be defined to be the norm of social conduct, based on sex. That is, "sex" defines what is biologically present, whereas "gender" defines what society expects, or requires from persons of different sexes. The distinction is important in law, as it tends to forbid discrimination on the basis of either, e.g. effeminate men cannot be fired for not acting according to their "gender". In other areas the distinction is primarily important for more abstracted social and legal arguments, rather than everyday use.

Gender may also mean grammatical gender, an attribute of nouns and adjectives in some languages. A word's grammatical gender may or may not correspond to the gender of what the word describes.