It depends on context. A discussion about "female singers" would probably be referring to gender. It's useful to have an adjective equivalent of "man" and "wom

It depends on context. A discussion about "female singers" would probably be referring to gender. It's useful to have an adjective equivalent of "man" and "woman", so people use "male" and "female" to mean that. My main point isn't to establish one meaning as more common, but to point out that there's not one "correct" meaning. Terminology around sex and gender are not neatly divided and it's not always easily determined what meaning people are using.