Definition of "misgender"
misgender
verb
third-person singular simple present misgenders, present participle misgendering, simple past and past participle misgendered
(transitive) To refer to (someone) using terms that express the wrong sex or gender, either unknowingly or intentionally; for example, calling a woman "son" or a boy "she".
Quotations
Gendering is the process of classifying and identifying the gender of other people, quickly and usually unconsciously, based on just a few visual and/or audio clues. This process of gendering privileges cisgendered people as few cisgendered people have had the experience of being misgendered. The experience of being misgendered is common for all transgendered people before they transition and for many transgendered people after they transition.
2013, Kelby Harrison, “Introduction: Many Have Passed; Some Have Failed”, in Sexual Deceit: The Ethics of Passing, Lexington Books, page 12
Occasionally, of course, we misgender people by accident. As a child is transitioning from presenting as a boy to presenting as a girl, for example, it may take time for friends and adults around that child to remember to use the pronoun "she," no matter how loving, accepting, and well meaning they are.
2016, Michele Angello, Ali Bowman, Raising the Transgender Child
A cis man who passes easily as male—meaning he was assigned male at birth, he identifies as male, he embodies his culture's ideals of masculinity comfortably, and he has never experienced being misgendered—is at the pinnacle of gender privilege and gender identity power.
2019, Katie Steele, Julie Nicholson, Radically Listening to Transgender Children
Stern (misgendered by Mansfield) is reckless and enthusiastic, and ‘flings [her] net wide; [she] brings it in teeming, […]’Katherine Mansfield, in a 1919 review of the novel Children of No Man’s Land by G. B. Stern (Gladys Bronwyn Stern), wrote, “Mr. Stern flings his net wide; he brings it in teeming, […]”.
2021, Robbie Moore, “Aliens”, in James Purdon, editor, British Literature in Transition, 1900–1920: A New Age?, Cambridge University Press, part I (Nation and Empire)
Taking people's pronouns seriously is important because it makes the difference between accepting or dismissing someone's existence. Have you ever noticed how we are usually very careful not to misgender a baby for fear of offending their parents (especially if the mistake is misgendering a baby boy for a girl)? When someone is pregnant, everybody is anxious to know the sex of the baby. Yet, many people in our society seem not to want to make an effort to use the "they" pronouns with someone who requests it. Isn't it a little strange?
2023, Silva Neves, “Sex and gender”, in Sexology: The Basics, Routledge
(transitive, grammar) To use the wrong grammatical gender with a word.
Quotations
Our first demonstration at the Canadian border—where we’d planned to test rumors about PWAs being denied entry into Canada by announcing we all had AIDS—fizzled when our bus entered the country without incident, save the late realization that our bilingual T-shirts had misgendered the virus—it's “le SIDA,” not “la SIDA”—causing a frantic scramble for sharpies and eyebrow pencils to correct the offending vowel.
2022, Ron Goldberg, “Storming the Ivory Tower”, in Boy with the Bullhorn: A Memoir and History of ACT UP New York, Fordham University Press