Transsexual

Transsexual is a term describing transgender people who want to transition, are transitioning, or have transitioned from one binary gender to the other. It used to be used a lot, but now "transgender" has taken over as the preferred term by most people, even people who could also be considered transsexual, because "transsexual" is less inclusive and may be seen as confusing gender identity with sexuality due to its similarity with terms like "heterosexual" and "bisexual".

"Transexual" can be a misspelling of "transsexual" or a term in its own right. Historically, "transsexual" was seen as pathologising by some trans people because it was created by oft-transphobic medical professionals, so parts of the trans community created the term "transexual" as an alternative. It has the same meaning, but it de-emphasises the "-sexual" ending since it can break down into "trans" and "exual", and it was created by and for trans people so it was not seen as transphobic. However, this usage has largely fallen by the wayside, and in English "transsexual" is considered the only correct spelling.