Meanings
- dateduncountableHomosexuality, as regarded by a theory of the late 19th and early 20th century that saw it as an inborn reversal of gender traits.First known use 19th c.
The average homosexual […] [is] a young person from an upper-middle-class family who is deeply troubled by sexual inversion and painfully eager to feel acceptance within home and community.
1978 October, Lois Spear, U.S. Catholic1 more example
Congenital sexual inversion—that is to say, sexual instinct turned by inborn constitutional abnormality toward persons of the same sex—is a comparatively rare phenomenon, so far as our knowledge at present extends.
1901, Henry Havelock Ellis, Sexual Inversion (Studies in the Psychology of Sex), Philadelphia: F. A. Davies, page 1
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna term formerly used to mean taking on the gender role of the opposite sex
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Cite this entry
sexual inversion. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sexual%20inversion
“sexual inversion.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sexual%20inversion. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sexual inversion,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sexual%20inversion.
Source: sexual inversion on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.