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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

TERF.

A trans-exclusionary radical feminist; a radical feminist who does not consider trans women to be women, or thinks they should not be included in female spaces or organisations, and who considers trans men to be women; a person whose transphobia is expressed in feminist terms.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/tɝf/General-American/tɜːf/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/tɛɾf/Scotland/tøːf/New-Zealand, Wales
  1. A trans-exclusionary radical feminist; a radical feminist who does not consider trans women to be women, or thinks they should not be included in female spaces or organisations, and who considers trans men to be women; a person whose transphobia is expressed in feminist terms.

Where this word comes from

Acronym of trans-exclusionary radical feminist. The earliest recorded use is from 2008 by trans-inclusive cisgender radical feminist Viv Smythe.

noun/tɝf/General-American/tɜːf/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/tɛɾf/Scotland/tøːf/New-Zealand, Wales
  1. Abbreviation of telomeric repeat-binding factor.

    abbreviation · alt-of · countable · uncountable
  2. Abbreviation of terrain flight (“flight close to the ground, to avoid enemy detection or fire”).

    US · abbreviation · alt-of · countable · uncountable
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.