The Cambridge Dictionary recently updated its books to expand the definition of the words man and woman to include transgender people.
A spokesperson for the dictionary told The Washington Post and CNN that the update to the entries was made in October. But it began getting attraction this week after Britain’s Telegraph newspaper first reported it, ABC News and The Post reported.
The dictionary's spokesperson told The Post and ABC News that the editors made the change after careful study.
“They carefully studied usage patterns of the word woman and concluded that this definition is one that learners of English should be aware of to support their understanding of how the language is used,” the spokesperson said in a statement to The Post and ABC News.
Still, the initial definition of woman, “an adult female human being,” is there; the definition was expanded to define a woman as "an adult who lives and identifies as female though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth," the news outlets reported.
For man, the term is still defined as “an adult male human being,” the definition was also expanded to include that a man is also “an adult who lives and identifies as male though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth," according to the news outlets.
