What is a synonym for ze?
Ze is a pronoun that serves the same grammatical function as
he or
she, except that it’s gender-neutral.
Ze is typically used by people who identify as
nonbinary or
genderqueer, meaning that their gender identify falls outside of the strict binary of only male or only female. For those who identify in one of these ways and who are deciding which pronouns to use, there are a lot of options. The most commonly used is nonbinary they. Some pronouns similar to
ze include
zie, zhe, xe, xie, sie, ve, and
ce. However, it should be noted that these shouldn’t be considered synonyms of
ze in the sense that they are interchangeable when referring to the same person—the pronouns the person has specified are the ones that should be used.
Ze is often used as part of the
ze/zir/zir set of pronouns, but it is sometimes also used as part of other, similar sets, such as
ze/hir/hir and
ze/zan/zan. In the next section, we’ll break down some of the nonbinary pronoun sets that people use.
What can you use instead of the word ze?
First and foremost: if someone says they use
ze as one of their pronouns, that’s what you should use when referring to them. Some people might use a mix of pronouns, such as
ze and
they, in which case you can use either one, or both at different times. There are a lot of different nonbinary pronouns, and it can seem overwhelming. To help, here is a chart of some (not all) nonbinary pronouns, along with the grammatical function of each one to help you understand how they’re used (and
conjugated). You can plug each set into this sentence to see how each pronoun is used:
[Column 1 subject form] told me to text [column 2 object form], but I don’t have [column 3 possessive form] number.
| subject form (same grammatical function as he, she, and nonbinary they) |
object form (same grammatical function as him, her, and nonbinary them) |
possessive adjective form (same grammatical function as his, her, and nonbinary their) |
| ze |
zir |
zir |
| ze |
hir |
hir |
| ze |
zan |
zan |
| zie |
zir |
zir |
| zhe |
zhim |
zhir |
| xe |
xem |
xyr |
| xe |
xim |
xis |
| xe |
xir |
xir |
| xe |
hir |
hir |
| xie |
xem |
xyr |
| sie |
sier |
sier |
| ce |
cir |
cir |
| ve |
vir |
vir |
| ve |
vir |
vis |
In many (but not all) cases, the possessive pronoun form (the one equivalent to
theirs, as in
That book is theirs) is simply formed by adding
s to the possessive adjective form (the one that’s equivalent to
their):
That book is zirs. Similarly, the
reflexive form (the one equivalent to
themself) is often formed by simply adding
self to the object form (the one that’s equivalent to
them):
zirself.
What kind of pronoun is ze?
Ze is a
personal pronoun. It’s singular. But before we get too grammatical, it should be noted that
ze is what’s called a
neopronoun. A neopronoun is a gender-neutral
pronoun that has been recently coined to fill the lack of gender-neutral options in English (not all gender-neutral pronouns are neopronouns—singular
they has been used for centuries). Grammatically speaking,
ze is categorized as a
third person pronoun (like
he, she, him, her, and
them), meaning that it’s used to refer to anyone other than the person doing the addressing (
first person) or the ones being addressed (
second person).
Ze is a
nominative pronoun, meaning that it’s generally used as the subject of a sentence—the one doing the action—as opposed to the object (the one on the receiving end of some action). A common
objective form of
ze is
zir, as in
Ze asked me to drive zir home. However, other object forms are sometimes used. For more, check out our
guide to gender-neutral pronouns. And our
guide to gender-neutral language.
How do you pronounce the pronoun ze?
The neopronoun ze is typically pronounced zee (like the letter Z). The similar pronouns zie, xe, and xie are usually pronounced in the same way.
