女雄是一个外来词，来自英文中的「Shemale」这个词汇，近似于东南亚习惯用词的「Ladyboy」。意指上半身拥有女性的第二性征（乳房），下半身仍保有男性完整的生殖器，或者是只有阴茎。通常人们都会将「女雄」误用在人妖，泰国变性女性因而被当成是女雄或人妖。

女雄是由男性在转变成女性之前，在生理上处于过渡阶段，但仍不被视为变性人，直到完成性别重置手术之后，生理上完全处于女性的身体特征，此阶段才被视为变性人。因此严格而言，女雄只是跨性别。虽是如此，在国家公民的身份上性别登记，女雄却与变性人一样都被归类于第三性，然而在部分国家的法律里，女雄并不列为女性或第三性，只能登记是男性，碍于外观上看似女性，这也是多数女雄不愿意向社会大众公开自己所登记的性别，而且自己在女雄的性别议题也很少会公开讨论。

Shemale (also known as she-male) is a term primarily used in sex work to describe a trans woman with male genitalia and female secondary sex characteristics, usually including breasts from breast augmentation or use of hormones. Many transgender people regard the term shemale as offensive, arguing that it mocks or shows a lack of respect toward the gender identity and gender expression of transgender individuals; in this view, the term emphasizes the biological sex of a person and neglects their gender. Using the term shemale for a transsexual woman often implies that she is working in the sex trade. The phrase is commonly used in pornography.