Paragirl: what it means

Overview

What paragirl means.

Paragirl is mostly a girl. Not half. Most. The LGBTQIA+ Wiki puts a number on it that the community has never agreed and this page will not defend: the woman part is the majority, and the remainder is some other gender or, most commonly, no gender at all. Woman is not wrong about you. It is just not the whole sentence.

It is the female branch of paragender, and it exists mainly to sharpen demigirl. Demigirl says partly a woman and leaves the proportion open. Paragirl says the girl part is the larger part. Whether that difference is worth a separate word is argued about; the people who use it say yes, because rounding up to woman felt like a lie and rounding down to demigirl felt like an understatement.

What it is not: a woman who is bad at being one, a woman who hates the rules, or a woman who has not decided. The remainder is a real part of you, and it is usually blank rather than a second gender you could name.

The female side of paragender: mostly a woman, with a smaller remainder that is some other gender or none.

Paragirl in one line

Origin

Where the word comes from

Paragirl is the feminine subset of paragender, a prefix-based system coined by Tumblr user queerspike on 11 July 2014 for genders that sit very near, but not quite at, another gender. The paragirl flag specifically was created by the Tumblr blog Pridearchive on 24 July 2014, two weeks after paragender itself: grey for partial gender, white for the absence of gender, red for femininity (close to but not quite pink), and orange for the "near-ness" the word describes.

It arrived as part of a wider mid-2010s Tumblr practice of building whole families of gender words from a shared prefix — para-, demi-, and others — to describe degrees of closeness to a binary gender without claiming it fully.

Coined by: Pridearchive (Tumblr), flag; paragender coined by queerspike
First recorded: 2014-07-24
Where: Tumblr

Signs people describe

Common experiences

None of these is a test. Most people recognise a few and shrug at the rest.

Ticking female on a form feels like rounding, and it is a small round, so you do it without much fuss.

You are fine with being called a woman.

You are not fine with being told that is all of it.

You have, at some point, put a number on it, and been slightly annoyed that you could.

Demigirl felt like underclaiming.

Woman felt like overclaiming. The gap between them is where you live.

In women’s spaces you belong and also notice a small step everyone else took that you did not.

Someone says “us girls” and you are included and something in you adds a footnote.

You were never looking for a new gender.

You were looking for a word for the leftover bit.

Correcting anyone feels disproportionate, so you mostly do not, and the word stays yours.

Pronouns

She/her is what you will hear most, kept because it is accurate for the part that is a girl. She/they is close behind. Some use they/them alone, some use neopronouns, and some change nothing because the gap is internal and does not need to be audible. Pronouns are not a measurement of the percentage.

All pronoun sets →

Consider another path

This might not be your word if…

1You feel fully a woman and hate what people expect of one. That is disliking the costume, not a partial gender.
2The girl part is half or less. Demigirl, or something else entirely, describes that more honestly than a word built on majority.
3It moves. More girl some weeks, barely any others. Girlflux was made for that.
4The remainder is a second gender you can name: a boy part, a neutral part with content. Look at bigender or demigender before this.

Questions people ask

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between paragirl and demigirl?+

Proportion. Demigirl is partly a girl, with the amount left open; plenty of demigirls would say half or less. Paragirl is specifically mostly a girl, with the girl part outweighing whatever else is there. The LGBTQIA+ Wiki records the split in those terms. If the proportion is not the point for you, demigirl is the more widely understood word.

Can a paragirl be assigned male at birth?+

Yes. Nothing in the definition mentions assignment. A person assigned male who is mostly a woman and partly something else fits the word exactly, and may also use transfeminine or trans woman alongside it, or instead of it, at different times.

Is paragirl a real gender or a made-up one?+

Every gender word was made up by someone. This one has a wiki record, a flag from 2014 and a small number of people who use it, and no research behind it. Whether it is real for you depends on whether “mostly a woman, not entirely” is the honest sentence. If it is, the word is doing its job.

The flag

Pridearchive (Tumblr blog) · 2014-07-24

Sources

Paragirl — LGBTQIA+ Wiki Definition (female subset of paragender, mostly a girl but not entirely, remainder most commonly agender), the distinction from demigirl, aliases parafemale and parafeminine, and the 2014 Pridearchive flag. Fetched 2026-09-03.
Paragender — MOGAI Wiki Coining of paragender by queerspike on 11 July 2014, the parent term to paragirl. Fetched 2026-09-06.

Many paths.
Same you.

Still figuring things out?

Twenty questions, four minutes, and a few words worth trying on.

Take the gender test More in Demigender