Topic Reading-Vol.3914-12/29/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Cambridge Dictionary’s definitions for ‘man’ and ‘woman’ now include trans people
“man” is usually defined as an adult male human being. It also could mean a human in general. Recently, one of the most authentic and popular English dictionaries, The Cambridge Dictionary, added another definition of “man”: an adult who lives and identifies as male though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth. You might also notice the pronounce “they” for a man in this definition. Indeed, “they” could also be used to refer to a single person whose gender is not simply male or female. Also, “woman” means an adult who lives and identifies as female though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth. The Cambridge Dictionary says the dictionary aims to have learners of English understand how the language is used in the present world. Their dictionaries are complied with by analysis of a large corpus of English texts from all areas of writing and publishing, or up-to-date usage of English. In the meantime, the definitions of "boy" or "girl" do not include such additions at least for now.

Now, teachers of the English language may have to take these recent additions to the definitions into consideration when they teach students and revise their English usage because even though those new meanings are lexically defined, they may not be socially accepted in some cultures yet.
Enjoy reading the article and think if you can adapt to today’s common English usage.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/15/us/cambridge-dictionary-woman-definition-trans-cec/index.html