gènere

Gènere is a term found in several Romance language traditions, used to denote a category or class of things. Spelling and sense vary by language and orthography, and in some contexts the word may appear with or without a diacritic. The basic idea shared across languages is classification by kind, type, or group, rather than a single universal meaning.

In linguistics, the related concept is grammatical gender. Many Romance languages assign nouns to genders such as masculine and feminine, and adjectives and articles agree with that gender. For example, Italian uses genere to refer to the gender of nouns (genere maschile, genere femminile), although the common word for “genus” in biology is also genere in Italian.

In biology, genere (plural generi) is the taxonomic rank below family and above species. A genus groups together species that are closely related; for example, Homo is a genus that includes Homo sapiens. In other languages, the equivalent term may be translated as genus or género, depending on the taxonomic tradition.

Beyond grammar and biology, gènere can also appear in cultural contexts to mean genre or category, such as literary genres (novel, poetry, drama) or social categories of gender. In sociolinguistic and gender studies, “gender” is a related concept describing social and cultural roles and identities associated with being male, female, or other identities.

Etymologically, the word derives from Latin genus, meaning birth, kind, or race. See also gender, genus, and genre. The use and orthography of gènere reflect language-specific conventions.