The Word List

Every gendered word our books swap, and what it becomes for each gender.

In our books, every gendered word is tagged with the character it refers to and a word set: the forms it takes for each gender. When a reader makes Dorothy a boy, every word in Dorothy’s sets switches: she becomes he, girl becomes boy, sunbonnet becomes sunhat, and Dorothy becomes Theodore. The shared list below serves every book; each book adds its own words and names.

Non-binary

Most sets use the same word for every non-binary pronoun (they, xe, ze, ne, it, one). Where they differ, as for the pronouns themselves, each is listed.

substitute

One side is a stand-in chosen to replace a gendered word, so we only ever look for the other side. We look for “bearded”, which becomes “wise” for a woman; we never go looking for “wise”.

in context

Only swapped when it describes a character: “a pretty girl” becomes “a handsome boy”, but “pretty gardens” stay pretty.

Mixed group

For words about several characters at once (“the witches”), the form used when their genders differ: “witches and warlocks”.

Literal and smooth reading

Some swaps can be made literally (“a very good woman” for Baum’s “a very good man”, which shows how often “man” means simply a person) or smoothly (“a very good person”). Books that offer both have a “Smooth reading” switch in the reader; literal is the default.