fornicate

verb

for·​ni·​cate ˈfȯr-nə-ˌkāt 

fornicated; fornicating

intransitive verb

: to commit fornication

transitive verb

: to commit fornication with

fornicator

ˈfȯr-nə-ˌkā-tər 

noun

Examples of fornicate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The medium is the message At its core, this is a story about the impact of surveillance capitalism – the corporate and government practice of gathering data about consumers to better understand and persuade them to buy, vote, fornicate, whatever. —Giovanni René Rodriguez, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2024

Add to that the novelty of observing this (imaginary) nomadic species forage, feed, fart and fornicate in their natural habitat for a year without uttering a single word. —Peter Debruge, Variety, 20 Jan. 2024

Emma Stone as a (literal) reborn woman, fornicating her way across Europe toward enlightenment. —Jada Yuan, Washington Post, 26 Oct. 2023

His moves have a language all their own: now imperious, now fornicating, now mincing, now rock-star swaggering. —Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 9 Sep. 2023

Multiple charges have been filed against the couple, who remain in custody A Florida couple have been accused by police of fornicating in the back of a patrol car mere moments after they were charged with biking while intoxicated, PEOPLE confirms. —Chris Harris, PEOPLE.com, 17 Sep. 2019

In one corner, a woman fornicated with a peasant, and in the other corner her sister did the same. —Ben Taub, The New Yorker, 30 Apr. 2018

Think of the waters around Louisiana as a great big dating pool for fish, with the eastern and western groups spending the warm summer months gorging and fornicating together. —Ben Raines, AL.com, 1 Nov. 2017

Irreverent red-faced monkeys fornicated on the temple roof and patrolled the tree’s lower branches, while hundreds of flying foxes hung like overripe fruits in the canopy. —Chiara Goia, Smithsonian, 29 Apr. 2017

Word History

Etymology

Late Latin fornicatus, past participle of fornicare to have intercourse with prostitutes, from Latin fornic-, fornix arch, vault, brothel

First Known Use

1552, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense

Kids Definition

fornicate

verb

for·​ni·​cate ˈfȯr-nə-ˌkāt 

fornicated; fornicating

: to commit fornication

fornicator

-ˌkāt-ər 

noun

Medical Definition

fornicate

verb

for·​ni·​cate ˈfȯr-nə-ˌkāt 

fornicated; fornicating

intransitive verb

: to commit fornication

transitive verb

: to commit fornication with

fornicator

-ˌkāt-ər 

noun