Title: secondary sexual characteristic
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - secondary sexual characteristic
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.11198
Status: current

Definition
Feature of the adult animal, appearing during puberty in humans and distinct between the sexes, although not part of the reproductive system.

Note
Examples include enlargement of the female breasts and sex-specific patterns of body hair, such as facial hair in the male and the male or female pubic escutcheon.

Related Terms
- adult: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10347
- puberty: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11152
- pubic: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11154

Source
- PAC, 2016, 88, 713. 'Glossary of terms used in developmental and reproductive toxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2016)' on page 802 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-1202)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11198/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11198/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11198/xml

Citation: Citation: 'secondary sexual characteristic' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.11198
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-05-10T06:38:11+00:00