Transsexual
An older, narrower word tied to medical transition. Some people still claim it; nobody else should apply it.
Transsexual is an older term for a trans person, and specifically one who has medically transitioned or intends to. It comes out of mid-twentieth-century clinical writing, where it was coined to separate people seeking medical transition from people the same literature called transvestites.
Transgender has replaced it as the general word, because transgender does not require anyone to have had, wanted or been able to afford any medical step. That change matters: the older word built a medical requirement into the definition, and access to that medicine has never been evenly distributed.
Plenty of people still use it about themselves, and they are not behind the times. For some it is precise, naming a medical history that transgender leaves vague. For others it is deliberate, a word they used for thirty years that they are not going to drop because it went out of fashion.
It is nonetheless a word to leave alone unless someone has claimed it. Applied to a stranger it reads as a comment on their body, which is exactly the thing the current vocabulary was built to stop asking about.
Transsexualism and the phrase a transsexual are both dated and both read badly. The adjective form, used of someone who uses it, is the only version still in ordinary circulation.
Transsexual is not a more serious kind of transgender
It is sometimes used to mark out people who have medically transitioned, as though they were further along or more committed than everyone else. That hierarchy is exactly what the shift to transgender was meant to dismantle, and it collapses the moment you consider who can afford the medicine and who lives where it is available.
The honest description is historical rather than hierarchical. It is an older word with a narrower scope, still used by people who chose it, and not a rank.
Saying it well
Say this
- I am transsexual.
- She describes herself as transsexual.
- Transsexual, which is the word I have used since 1994.
- He is a trans man.
Not this
- A transsexual
- Transsexualism
- Calling someone transsexual who has not used it
- Using it to ask about surgeries
Questions people actually ask
What does transsexual mean?
An older term for a trans person, specifically one who has medically transitioned or intends to. Transgender has largely replaced it.
Is transsexual offensive?
Not when someone uses it about themselves, and many do. It reads badly when applied to someone who has not claimed it, because it implies a comment on their body.
What is the difference between transsexual and transgender?
Transgender is the broad current term and requires no medical step. Transsexual is older and narrower, tied to medical transition.
Should I use transsexual or transgender?
Transgender, unless the person you are describing uses transsexual about themselves. Then use theirs.
Is transsexualism a word to use?
No. It is dated clinical language and reads as a diagnosis rather than a description.