Polysexuality, also spelled plysexuality or polisexuality, is the sexual attraction to many, but not necessarily all, genders. For example, a polysexual person could be attracted to all genders except men, or a polysexual person could be attracted only to non-binary people, genderfluid people, and male-aligned people. Polysexual general implies that one is attracted to more than two genders, but one can be any number of genders anywhere between two genders to all genders besides one. Polysexual people may or may not have a preference and may or may not experience a difference between genders.
Polysexuality should not be confused with polyamory, the capacity to be in a relationship with multiple people at once, nor should it be confused with being bisexual, omnisexual, or pansexual. The difference between polysexual and omnisexual or pansexual is that pansexuals and omnisexuals are attracted to all genders, while polysexuals are attracted to several genders, but not necessarily all. The difference between polysexual and bisexual usually comes down to individual preference, particularly where people may feel that different terms communicate their personal experience of attraction with more accuracy.
The romantic equivalent to polysexual is polyromantic.
Flag
The polysexual flag has three stripes, pink, representing attraction to women, green, representing attraction to non-binary people, and blue, representing attraction to men. The flag was created by user Samlin on Tumblr[1] in 2012. They posted a design to the blog fuckyeahpolysexuality with the caption, "I, as a poly individual, was greatly saddened that we don't have a flag...so I made one :P I made it similar to the bi and pan flags, since they're all in under the multisexual umbrella -Samlin".
The alternative poly flag was designed by an anonymous wiki user on October 21, 2020. It is designed to be easier on the eyes, while also maintaining most of the same meaning. In addition to the original stripe meanings, the lighter pink and blue stripes also represent a-spec ply individuals. The very light green (nearly white) stripes represents peace, as well as transgender poly individuals. It is intended to represent polyromantic individuals, but it can be used for polysexuality as well.
Etymology
The prefix poly- comes from the Greek prefix polus, meaning "many".[2]