homo

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhəʊ.məʊ/, /ˈhɒm.əʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhoʊ.moʊ/
• Rhymes: -əʊməʊ

Clipping of homosexual.

homo (plural homos)

1. (colloquial, often derogatory) Clipping of homosexual.

   I heard that he's a homo, but he hasn't come out of the closet yet.

   • 1938, Cecil Day Lewis, Starting point‎^[1], page 127:

     "... He's a homo."
     "My dear Theo, at my age one can't worry about little details like that. Besides, he's got such a nice voice."

homo (comparative more homo, superlative most homo)

1. (colloquial, sometimes derogatory) Of or pertaining to homosexuality.

Clipping of homogenized.

homo (countable and uncountable, plural homos)

1. (dated, US, Canada) Homogenized milk with a high butterfat content.
   • 1956, Purdue University. Agricultural Experiment Station., Station bulletin‎^[2], page 25:

     One quart of homo wholesale in glass equals one quart equivalent. Certain modifications were made in these relatives to adjust for variations in units per ...

• homo milk

homo (not comparable)

1. (Canada, US) Homogenized; almost always said of milk with a high butterfat content.
   • 1958, American milk review and milk plant monthly‎^[3], volume 20, page 190:

     Regular homo milk was being sold out of stores in half gallons for 33 cents against 44 cents on regular homo milk on home delivery.

From Latin homō (“man, human”), sometimes as a shortening of Homo sapiens. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) Doublet of gome, hombre, ombre, and omi.

homo (plural homos)

1. (nonstandard) A human.
   • 1850, Edgar Allan Poe, X-ing a Paragrab:

     John, John, if you don't go you're no homo—no! You're only a fowl, an owl, a cow, a sow,—a doll, a poll; a poor, old, good-for-nothing-to-nobody, log, dog, hog, or frog, come out of a Concord bog.

• John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary

• Moho, moho

• IPA^(key): /hɔ̀mɔ̀/

homo

1. nose

• Moi, Daniel Rabbi and Mario Lau Babur Kuduku, Sister Mary Mangira Michael, Simon Hagimir John, Rapheal Zakenia Paul Mafoi, Nyoul Gulluma Kuduku. 2018. Bongo – English Dictionary. Juba, South Sudan. SIL-South Sudan.

From the same root as holmo (v1.), which is related to Choctaw holmo (“roof”).

• IPA^(key): /ho.mo/

homo

1. (active voice, transitive, nominal object) to roof, to put a roof on

Borrowed from Japanese ホモ (homo), itself a shortening of ホモセクシャル (homosekusharu, “homosexual”), from English homosexual.

homo (Internet slang, humorous)

1. gay

   Synonym: 木毛 (mùmáo)

homo (Internet slang, humorous)

1. male homosexuality
2. a gay, especially a male homosexual

• 木毛 (mùmáo)

homo (Mainland China, Internet slang, humorous)

1. alternative form of 鴻蒙 / 鸿蒙 (hóngméng, “HarmonyOS, Huawei's operating system”)

• 哄矇／哄蒙 (hǒngmēng)

Borrowed from Latin homō.

• IPA^(key): [ˈɦomo]

homo n (indeclinable)

1. genus Homo, especially in informal and creative use

   Synonym: člověk

   • 1985, Listy:

     Tak sebou hni, ty moje malý homo sapiens! [...] můj malý homo!

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2008, Jekaterina Andrikanis, Homevideo I. - aneb Sám sobě režisérem:

     Zapnutím kamery vstoupil „homo natáčející“ do dialogu s „homo prohlížejícím“.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• Specialists usually use the capitalized translingual spelling Homo.

• “homo”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)
• “homo”, in Akademický slovník cizích slov at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz [Academic dictionary of foreign words] (in Czech), 1995

• (internet slang) heaumeau

Clipping of homoseksueel and/or homofiel.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɦoː.moː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ho‧mo

homo m (plural homo's, diminutive homootje n)

1. (neutral, not offensive) gay, homosexual
2. (offensive, derogatory) Used as a general slur

The word homo is a general, neutral and somewhat informal term for a homosexual person. It is used as a slur by some, but the term, or its use in this way, can be considered offensive. Because the word itself is not inherently offensive or vulgar, some people may take offense at the implication that homosexuality is something negative and shameful that could be used as a derogatory term. This depends, of course, on a particular person's attitude towards homosexuality. Compare similar usage of English gay.

From Latin homō. Compare French homme, Italian uomo. Doublet of oni.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhomo/

• Audio 1:

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• Audio 2:

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• Audio 3:

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• Rhymes: -omo
• Syllabification: ho‧mo

homo (accusative singular homon, plural homoj, accusative plural homojn)

1. a human being, person
   • 1933, La Sankta Biblio, (Evangelio laŭ Luko 4:4):

     Kaj Jesuo respondis al li: Estas skribite, Ne per la pano sole vivos homo.

     Then Jesus answered him, "It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone." (Luke 4:4)

• homedo (“hominid”)

• femino, homino, virino (“woman”)
• viro (“man”)
• homido, infano (“child”)

• homaro (“humanity”)

• → Ido: homo

homo

Clipping of homoseksuaali.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhomo/, [ˈho̞mo̞]
• Rhymes: -omo
• Syllabification^(key): ho‧mo
• Hyphenation^(key): ho‧mo

homo

1. gay man

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:homo

2. (rare) any gay person
3. (offensive, derogatory) Used as a general slur.

The word homo is a general, neutral and somewhat informal term for a homosexual person. It is used as a slur by some, but either the term, or its use in this way, can be considered offensive. Because the word itself is not inherently offensive or vulgar, some people may take offense at the implication that homosexuality is something negative and shameful that could be used as a derogatory term. This depends, of course, on a particular person's attitude towards homosexuality. Compare similar usage in Dutch.

• miehimys

• “homo”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[4] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023

Inherited from Latin homō.

homo m (plural homos) (ORB, broad)

1. man

   Coordinate term: fèna (“woman”)

• homâjo

• homme in DicoFranPro: Dictionnaire Français/Francoprovençal – on dicofranpro.llm.umontreal.ca
• homo in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

Clipping of homosexuel.

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

homo m or f by sense (plural homos)

1. gay (homosexual person, especially male)

homo (plural homos)

1. gay, homo

• “homo”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

From Esperanto homo, from English human, French homme and humain, Italian uomo, Spanish hombre, from Latin homō, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰǵʰm̥mō (“earthling”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈho.mo/

homo (plural homi)

1. human, man

• animalo (“animal”)

From English homo.

• IPA^(key): /ho.mo/
• Hyphenation: ho‧mo

homo (plural homo-homo)

1. (colloquial, offensive) gay; homosexual

• maho (slang)
• jomok (slang)

homo m (plural homini)

1. obsolete spelling of omo (“man, person”)

From earlier hemō, from Proto-Italic *hemō, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰm̥mṓ (“earthling”), from *dʰéǵʰōm (“earth”), whence Latin humus. Cognates include Old Lithuanian žmuõ (“man”), Gothic 𐌲𐌿𐌼𐌰 (guma) and Old English guma (“man”) (whence English gome). See also nēmō (“no one”), from *ne hemō.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈhɔ.moː], [ˈhɔ.mɔ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈɔː.mo]
• Note: iambic shortening of the final vowel before a following (primarily or secondarily) stressed syllable is very common, but in hexameter poetry this variation may simply have been lexicalised as arbitrary license.

homō̆ m (genitive hominis); third declension

1. a human being, man, human, person

   Homō hominī lupus est (proverb).

   Man is a wolf to man.

   Hominēs, dum docent, discunt.

   People, while teaching, learn. [I.e., the teacher is also a student.]

   • 163 BCE, Publius Terentius Afer, Heauton Timorumenos [The Self-Tormentor]:

     Homo sum — humani nihil a me alienum puto.

     I'm a human being — nothing that's human is alien to me.

   • 67 or 49 BC, Fragmentum Atestinum:[5]

     qvod·ad·hominem·libervm·liberamve·pertinere·deicatvr

     What belongs to a free man?

   • 66 BCE, Cicero, Pro Cluentio 199:

     At quae mater! […] cuius ea stultitia est, ut eam nemo hominem appellare possit!

     And what a mother! […] whose stupidity is such that nobody would even call her human!

   • ?, Pseudo-Remmius Palaemon, Ars 536.9:

     […] exceptis paucis masculini generis, quorum numero sunt ordo, ligo, et iis quae commūnis generis sunt, ut homo, nemo, bubo et mango.

     […] except […] and those that are of common gender, such as homo, nemo, bubo and mango.

2. a male human being, man
   • c. 194 BCE, Plautus, Poenulus 3.1.1–4:

     [Agorastocles] Ita me di ament, tardo amico nihil est quicquam inaequius,
     praesertim homini amanti, qui quidquid agit properat omnia.
     Sicut ego hos duco advocatos, homines spissigradissimos,
     tardiores quam corbitae sunt in tranquillo mari.

     [Agorastocles] May gods so love me, nothing is more unfair than having a slothful friend, even more so to a man in love, who in doing anything must all expedite. So I lead them, having called them forth, the most slow-paced men of them all, slower than freight ships [corbitae] upon a quiet sea.

   • 533 CE, Justinian, Digest 48.19.38.5.3:

     Quī abortionis aut amatoris poculum dant […] si eo mulier aut homo perierit […]

     Those who poison someone with an abortion or love potion […] if it causes the death of the woman or man […]

3. (address) man, fellow, mate, pal, bud, partner, dude (a form of address to male peers, especially by another male)
   • 160 BCE, Publius Terentius Afer, Adelphoe 111, (Robert Kauer and W. M. Lindsay (eds), 1958):

     prō Iuppiter, tŭ homō adigi' mĕ ad īnsāniam!

     For Jupiter's sake, man, you're driving me insane!

4. (address) used in the vocative expression "mi homo" as a form of address to a man by a woman
   • c. 203 BCE, Plautus, Cistellaria 4.2.57:

     Mi homo et mea mulier, vos saluto.

     My man and my woman, I greet you.

5. (Medieval Latin) husband

• Homo has the basic sense of "human being"^[1] and is often used generically to mean “Man” or “men” in the broad sense of "humanity", encompassing both male and female human beings. It is not typically used to specify or emphasize male as opposed to female sex: the usual terms to express “man” in the sense “male” are vir (“adult male human being”) or mās (“male”). There are rare examples in early Latin of homō being used in contrast to an explicitly female term such as mulier (“woman”), such as Plautus Cistellaria 723, but this only becomes frequent in late Latin.^[2]
• When referring to specific human beings, homō is more often applied to male rather than female persons in the corpus of ancient Latin texts. For Romans, the use of homō versus vir when referring to a male human being was influenced by the differing social connotations of the two words: vir tends to be reserved as a positive designation for men of the Roman upper class, whereas the more generic term homō is frequently used to refer to men of lower social orders or foreigners,^[3] and also to refer to upper class men in contexts where the positive connotations of vir would be out of place. For example, homō rather than vir tends to be used by Cicero in connection with pejorative adjectives.^[4] There seems to have been a similar distinction in social connotation between mulier (“woman”), the general word for 'woman' that could be used in neutral or negative contexts, and fēmina (“female, woman”), which had positive, aristocratic overtones when used as a designation for a woman.^[5]
  • An instance of Cicero speaking of good and bad men using the nouns vir and homo respectively (Pro Caelio 12):

    utebatur hominibus improbis multis; et quidem optimis se viris deditum esse simulabat.

    He made use of many wicked people; and indeed he pretended to be devoted to most excellent men.

• Homo is claimed to be of common (epicene) gender by several grammarians, albeit with limited external supporting evidence - see quotations. When used with a modifier and referring to a woman, nevertheless agrees in the masculine gender (like German Mensch, Russian челове́к (čelovék)) (Charisius, GL I, p.102.20–103.1 = pp.130.19–31.2 B.).
• The alternative genitive singular form hominus is attested in Old Latin, with the rare genitive singular ending -us instead of the standard Classical Latin ending -is.

Third-declension noun.

• mulier (“adult human woman”)
• vir (“adult human man”) (with connotations of freeborn status and possession of masculine virtues)
• fēmina (“female; woman”) (in Republican Latin, used especially to refer to women of social rank, functioning as a female counterpart of vir and a more respectful synonym of mulier)
• mās (“male”), masculus
• puella (“girl”)
• puer (“boy”)
• adulēscēns m or f (“adolescent”)
• iuvenis m or f (“youth”)
• senex m or f (“aged person; old man; old woman”)

• “homo”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “homo”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "homo", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[6], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • our contemporaries; men of our time: homines qui nunc sunt (opp. qui tunc fuerunt)
    
  • our contemporaries; men of our time: homines huius aetatis, nostrae memoriae
    
  • that is the way of the world; such is life: sic vita hominum est
    
  • the position of the lower classes: condicio ac fortuna hominum infimi generis
    
  • what am I to do with this fellow: quid huic homini (also hoc homine) faciam?
    
  • Fortune makes men shortsighted, infatuates them: fortuna caecos homines efficit, animos occaecat
    
  • my most intimate acquaintance: homo intimus, familiarissimus mihi
    
  • to be in every one's mouth: in ore omnium or omnibus (hominum or hominibus, but only mihi, tibi, etc.) esse
    
  • to be a subject for gossip: in sermonem hominum venire
    
  • the common opinion, the general idea: existimatio hominum, omnium
    
  • a devotee of pleasure; a self-indulgent man: homo voluptarius (Tusc. 2. 7. 18)
    
  • many men, many minds: quot homines, tot sententiae
    
  • within the memory of man: post hominum memoriam
    
  • within the memory of man: post homines natos
    
  • learned, scientific, literary men: homines litterarum studiosi
    
  • learned, scientific, literary men: homines docti
    
  • a man of learning; a scholar; a savant: vir or homo doctus, litteratus
    
  • for a Roman he is decidedly well educated: sunt in illo, ut in homine Romano, multae litterae (De Sen. 4. 12)
    
  • to civilise men, a nation: homines, gentem a fera agrestique vita ad humanum cultum civilemque deducere (De Or. 1. 8. 33)
    
  • an accomplished dialectician: homo in dialecticis versatissimus
    
  • moral science; ethics: philosophia, in qua de bonis rebus et malis, deque hominum vita et moribus disputatur
    
  • a conscientious historian: homo in historia diligens
    
  • a singer, member of a choir: (homo) symphoniacus
    
  • a wit; a joker: (homo) ridiculus (Plaut. Stich. 1. 3. 21)
    
  • a man of no self-control, self-indulgent: homo impotens sui
    
  • a man of no self-control, self-indulgent: homo effrenatus, intemperans
    
  • a moral (immoral) man: homo bene (male) moratus
    
  • a depraved, abandoned character: homo perditus
    
  • a man of character, with a strong personality: vir constans, gravis (opp. homo inconstans, levis)
    
  • to sacrifice human victims: pro victimis homines immolare
    
  • to unite isolated individuals into a society: dissipatos homines in (ad) societatem vitae convocare (Tusc. 1. 25. 62)
    
  • to shun society: hominum coetus, congressus fugere
    
  • business-men: homines negotii (always in sing.) gerentes
    
  • an experienced politician: homo in re publica exercitatus
    
  • a parvenu (a man no member of whose family has held curule office): homo novus
    
  • people of every rank: homines omnis generis
    
  • people of every rank and age: homines omnium ordinum et aetatum
    
  • one of the people: homo plebeius, de plebe
    
  • a popular man: aurae popularis homo (Liv. 42. 30)
    
  • public opinion: existimatio populi, hominum
    
  • to be always considering what people think: multum communi hominum opinioni tribuere
    
  • men of sound opinions: homines graves (opp. leves)
    
  • a democrat: homo popularis
    
  • a man who genuinely wishes the people's good: homo vere popularis (Catil. 4. 5. 9)
    
  • a democratic leader: homo florens in populari ratione
    
  • revolutionists: homines seditiosi, turbulenti or novarum rerum cupidi
    

Short for homofil (“homophile”) or homofil person (“homophile person”).

homo (indeclinable)

1. homosexual, gay

homo m (definite singular homoen, indefinite plural homoer, definite plural homoene)

1. a homosexual or gay (male homosexual person).

• homofil
• homse
• soper

• “homo” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “homo” in The Ordnett Dictionary

Short for homofil (“homophile”) or homofil person (“homophile person”).

homo (indeclinable)

1. homosexual, gay

homo m (definite singular homoen, indefinite plural homoar, definite plural homoane)

1. a homosexual or gay (male homosexual person).

• homofil
• homse
• sopar

• homoekteskap
• homomarsj
• homoparade

• “homo” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• Hyphenation: ho‧mo

homo (invariable)

1. (derogatory) homosexual (involving or relating to homosexuals)

   Synonyms: homossexual, gay

• “homo”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Clipping of homosexual.

homo m (plural homo)

1. (slang) gay

homo (invariable)

1. homo (homosexual)

• “homo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

homo c or n

1. (colloquial, chiefly derogatory) a homo (homosexual)

   Synonym: bög

homo

1. (colloquial, only used predicatively) homosexual

   Synonym: homosexuell

• bi
• hetero

• homo in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• homo in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• homo in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

homo c (plural homo's)

1. homosexual, gay person

• homorjochten

• “homo”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011