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More than 30,000 people have backed a petition calling for the removal of "sexist" definitions of the word "woman" from dictionaries and the addition of transgender and lesbian terms.

Campaigners are demanding the Oxford Thesaurus of English and the Oxford Dictionary of English remove the "unacceptable" language from the texts.

Maria Beatrice Giovanardi launched the petition against Oxford University Press this summer.

She wrote: "Have you ever searched online for the definition of a woman? B****, besom, piece, bit, mare, baggage, wench, petticoat, frail, bird, bint, biddy, filly' - these are the words which the Oxford's English Dictionary online tells us mean the same as ‘woman’.

"This sexist dictionary must change."

She also cites examples of the definition of woman including: "Ms September will embody the professional, intelligent yet sexy career woman" and "I told you to be home when I get home, little woman."

The petition has three goal, with the first hoping to "eliminate" phrases that are discriminatory or patronising to women.

It also aims to enlarge the entry for woman and to include representative of minorities, such as a transgender woman.

OUP’s head of lexical content strategy, Katherine Connor Martin, told The Guardian that editors are considering whether the definition of woman needs expanding and that entries are adapted as the use of English changes over time.

"If there is evidence of an offensive or derogatory word or meaning being widely used in English, it will not be excluded from the dictionary solely on the grounds that it is offensive or derogatory," she said.

"Nonetheless, part of the descriptive process is to make a word's offensive status clear in the dictionary’s treatment."