neuter
neuter Lexical Profile
neuter Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To sterilize a domestic animal, especially a male, by surgically removing its reproductive organs.
"The animal shelter requires new owners to neuter their pets within six months of adoption."
To render something ineffective, powerless, or harmless by stripping away its force or authority.
"Last-minute amendments threatened to neuter the environmental protection bill before it could pass."
• adjective
Of a word or grammatical form: belonging to a gender class that is neither masculine nor feminine.
"In German, the word for a young girl is grammatically neuter rather than feminine."
Of an animal, insect, or plant: lacking fully developed reproductive organs, or having had them surgically removed; asexual or sterile.
"Worker bees are neuter females that spend their lives maintaining the hive."
• noun
A grammatical gender that is neither masculine nor feminine, or a word belonging to that gender.
"Latin nouns are divided into masculines, feminines, and neuters."
A castrated or spayed domestic animal, or a sexually undeveloped insect such as a worker bee or ant.
"The cat show features a separate competition category for pedigreed neuters."
Word Nuance & Usage
In veterinary usage, 'neuter' can apply to the sterilization of either sex, though in everyday speech it is often restricted to male animals while 'spay' is used for females.
• Rhymes for neuter
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in Late Middle English from Middle French neutre or directly from Latin neuter ('neither of two'), formed from ne- ('not') and uter ('either'). It was originally introduced as a grammatical term translating Ancient Greek oudéteros.