Epicene is an adjective (sometimes substantive) for loss of gender distinction, often specifically loss of masculinity. It includes:

In linguistics, the adjective "epicene" is used to describe a word that has only one form for both male and female referents. The term "common" is also used. In English, for example, the words "assassin", "cousin" and "violinist" can refer to either a man or a woman. The word "he," although often regarded as masculine, is also considered to be epicene by some;^{[citation needed]} alternatively, the more evidently epicene word "they" is used by some as a singular, generic, non-referring pronoun (technically, anaphora) (see also: singular they).

In languages with grammatical gender, the term "epicene" can be used in two distinct situations: