female genital mutilation

noun

: a procedure performed especially as a cultural rite that typically includes the total or partial excision of the female external genitalia and especially the clitoris and labia minora and that is now outlawed in many nations including the U.S.

—abbreviation FGM

called also female circumcision

compare infibulation

Examples of female genital mutilation in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Here’s why some high-risk patients aren’t getting drugs to combat COVID Connecticut is 1 of 9 states without a ban on female genital mutilation. —Hartford Courant, 13 June 2024

By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK published February 13, 2024 The deaths of three girls have reinvigorated efforts to ban female genital mutilation (FGM) in Sierra Leone, where the practice is still widespread despite global efforts to eradicate it. —Harriet Marsden, theweek, 13 Feb. 2024

This includes even female genital mutilation – which is practiced on daughters as a rite of passage. —Nurith Aizenman, NPR, 12 May 2024

Already, the United Nations says that about 75 percent of girls and women in Gambia between the ages of 15 and 49 have been subject to genital cutting, which is often described by opponents as female genital mutilation, or FGM. —Ramatoulie Jawo, Washington Post, 19 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1979, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

female genital mutilation

noun

: a procedure performed especially as a cultural rite that typically includes the total or partial excision of the female external genitalia and especially the clitoris and labia minora and that is now outlawed in many nations including the United States

—abbreviation FGM

called also female circumcision

compare infibulation