masculineneuter

Masculineneuter is a linguistic term used to describe a binary system of grammatical gender in which nouns are categorized as masculine or neuter. It is a typological label rather than a statement about biology; gender in this sense is a grammatical category that affects agreement and word form, not the actual gender of people or objects.

In systems that are described as masculine-neuter, articles, adjectives, and pronouns reflect the gender of the noun they modify. The exact rules vary by language: nouns assigned to masculine or neuter take different inflection patterns or accompanying determiners, and the way these forms interact with case and number can differ widely. The neuter category often covers inanimate or non-human or abstract nouns, though there are languages where patterns diverge.

The term is primarily used in grammars and typological descriptions to distinguish binary gender systems from those that include feminine or other classes. Many languages historically documented three or more genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), and some modern languages or dialects exhibit two-way systems within particular historical stages or varieties. Etymologically, the words derive from Latin masculinus and neuter, with neuter meaning “neither.”

See also grammatical gender, noun classification, and agreement morphology for related concepts in language structure.