Epicenity


Epicenity is the lack of gender distinction, often reducing the emphasis on the masculine to allow the feminine. It includes androgyny – having both masculine and feminine characteristics.
The adjective gender-neutral may describe epicenity.

Specialized uses

In linguistics, an epicene word has the same form for male and for female referents. In some cases, the term common is also used, but should not be confused with common or appellative as a contrary to proper.
In English, for example, the epicene nouns cousin and violinist can refer to a man or a woman, and so can the epicene pronoun one. The noun stewardess and the third-person singular pronouns he and she on the other hand are not epicene.
In languages with grammatical gender, the term epicene can be used in two distinct situations:
This can be further complicated when dealing with spoken French or referring about biological entities with non-binary gender, such as the hermaphrodite snail or dioecious plants.