Hermaphrodite is a term which comes from Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite.
It is used as a scientific term in biology.
In zoology, an animal which can produce both sperm and ova is a hermaphrodite. As an example, most earthworms are hermaphrodites. A simultaneous hermaphrodite has both sets of sex organs throughout life. A sequential hermaphrodite has ovaries at first, replaced by a testis later, or the other way round.
In botany, hermaphrodite is used for 'complete' flowers with both male and female parts, and for plants which have bisexual reproductive units. See flowering plant sexuality for details.
With people, the term hermaphrodite is not correct, because true functioning hermaphrodites are not possible in humans. What sometimes happens is errors in development which lead to intersex persons. A definition of intersex is:
People who are intersex may have a very small penis and no testicles, or a very small and short vagina and a large clitoris that looks like a penis. The term hermaphrodite is considered offensive and outdated by many intersex people.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia Simple English article Hermaphrodite, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki Simple English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.