Assigned at birth: The sex assigned to a child at birth, most often based on the child's external anatomy. Also referred to as birth sex, natal sex, biological sex or sex.
Cisgender: A term used to describe people whose gender identity aligns with those typically associated with the sex assigned to them at birth.
Deadnaming: Calling a transgender person the name they were given at birth and no longer use.
FTM: Female-to-male transgender person. Sometimes identifies as a transgender man. Someone assigned the female gender at birth who identifies on the male spectrum.
Gender dysphoria: Clinically significant distress caused when a person's assigned birth gender is not the same as the one with which they identify.
Gender expression: External manifestations of gender, expressed through a person's name, pronouns, clothing, haircut, behavior, voice, and/or body characteristics.
Gender identity: A person's internal, deeply held sense of their gender. For transgender people, their own internal gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth.
Hormone replacement therapy: The process in which transgender people choose to take a prescription of synthetic hormones. For transgender women, that may include estrogen as well as testosterone blockers. For transgender men: testosterone.
MTF: Male-to-female transgender person. Sometimes known as a transgender woman. Someone assigned the male gender at birth who identifies on the female spectrum.
Nonbinary: An adjective describing a person who does not identify exclusively as a man or a woman.
Transgender: An umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.
Transition: An individualized process in which transgender people move from living aligned with the sex they were assigned at birth to living aligned with their gender identity.