xyr

Xyr is a pronoun that serves the same grammatical function as his or her, except that it’s gender-neutral. Xyr 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.

Some pronouns similar to xyr include xir, xis, zir, zhir, sier, cir, vir, and hir. The most commonly used is nonbinary their.

However, it should be noted that these shouldn’t be considered synonyms of xyr 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.

Xyr is often used as part of the xe/xem/xyr set of pronouns, but it is sometimes also used as part of other, similar sets, such as xie/xem/xyr.

In the next section, we’ll break down some of the nonbinary pronoun sets that people use.

First and foremost: if someone says they use xyr 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 xyr and their, 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. 

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 xyrs. 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): xemself.

Xyr is the possessive form of the personal pronoun xe (or xie). Like it’s equivalent their, it’s often considered a possessive pronoun, but it functions as a possessive adjective (also called a possessive determiner).

Like their, xyr is used along with third person pronouns (like they and them), which refer to anyone other than the person doing the addressing (first person) or the ones being addressed (second person).

Regardless of its grammatical function, xyr 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, them, and their have been used for a long time).

For more, check out our guide to gender-neutral pronouns.

And our guide to gender-neutral language.

Xyr is typically pronounced zeer.