Lesbian
![The word lesbian can refer to a woman's identity, to desire, or to romantic or sexual activity between women. (Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene by Simeon Solomon)](/Images/godic/202501/12/Sappho_and_Erinna_in_a_Garden_at_Mytilene2018.jpg")
![Sappho of Lesbos, depicted here in a 1904 painting by John William Godward, gave the term lesbian the connotation of erotic desire between women.](/Images/godic/202501/12/Godward-In_the_Days_of_Sappho-19042018.jpg")
![Havelock Ellis (1859–1939), one of a number of sexologists responsible for the now-discredited categorization of](/Images/godic/202501/12/Havelock_Ellis_a2018.JPG")
![](/Images/godic/202501/12/Faust's_Dream,_by_Luis_Ricardo_Falero2018.jpg")
A lesbian is a female homosexual: a female who experiences romantic love or sexual attraction to other females. The term lesbian is also used to express sexual identity or sexual behavior regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexuality or same-sex attraction.