Standard Lemma guide

he/she

pron · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

pron

Meaning 1

He or she; singular of they, used as a gender-neutral reference to the third person singular.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: singular, third-person

Examples

  • Ask a receptionist if he/she is not busy.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

13 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: той (toj/tja) — he or she
  • Bulgarian: тя (toj/tja) — he or she
  • Chinese Cantonese: 佢 (keoi5) — he or she
  • Chinese Mandarin: 他 (tā/tā) — he or she
  • Chinese Mandarin: 她 (tā/tā) — he or she
  • Chinese Mandarin: TA (tā) — he or she
  • Danish: han — he or she
  • Danish: hun — he or she
  • Danish: høn — he or she
  • Finnish: hän — he or she
  • French: iel — he or she
  • French: il — he or she
  • French: elle — he or she