adultery

noun adul·tery \ ə-ˈdəl-t(ə-)rē \

Updated on: 15 May 2018

Definition of adultery

plural adulteries

: voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than that person's current spouse or partner; also : an act of adultery

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Examples of adultery in a Sentence

He found out that his wife had committed adultery.
She accused her husband of adultery.

Recent Examples of adultery from the Web

Check out this video to find out who is in the costume here ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: In 1536, Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII, was arrested and charged with adultery; she was beheaded 17 days later.

— azcentral, "AZ Memo: Day 5 of the #RedForEd walkout; possible snowfall in Flagstaff; Phoenix tree-planting projects add shade," 2 May 2018
Shariah police wanted to convict them of adultery, which would’ve resulted in a greater number of lashes, but lacked enough witnesses.

— Time, "Indonesia's Aceh Lashes Unwed Couples and Prostitutes In What Could be the Province's Last Public Caning," 20 Apr. 2018
Diana also admits to adultery, having had an affair with James Hewitt, a well known polo player and Diana's former riding instructor, and opens up about Charles' affair with Camilla in a BBC interview.

— morgan evans, Good Housekeeping, "A Timeline of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles' Royal Romance," 12 May 2017
The bill will limit the number of reasons a couple can seek a divorce to things like adultery, abuse, abandonment, or separation of two years or more.

— ellie delano, Woman's Day, "Alabama Wants To Make It Harder To Get A Divorce," 16 Apr. 2012
Saudi Arabia also has its own set of laws on relationships; both homosexual acts and adultery are punishable by law.

— justin barrasso, SI.com, "The Week in Wrestling: When Will WWE’s Female Wrestlers Be Allowed to Perform in Saudi Arabia?," 25 Apr. 2018
Yes, the play is meant to subtly satirize and mock, but its whole plot turns on stuff like marrying well, being untouched by scandals such as divorce or adultery and knowing how to behave at the opera.

— christopher arnott, courant.com, "Hartford Stage's Lush, Elegant 'Age Of Innocence' Adapted To Be Freshly Relevant," 16 Apr. 2018
When Man Ray needed a divorce, and the only ground New York State would accept was adultery, Abbott agreed to be named as the other woman.

— dwight garner, New York Times, "‘Berenice Abbott’ Captures a Large and Star-Studded Life," 9 Apr. 2018
For them, adventure wasn’t the main reason for their adultery.

— karin jones, New York Times, "What Sleeping With Married Men Taught Me About Infidelity," 6 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'adultery.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

What’s the difference between adultery and fornication?

In case you were wondering, the words adultery and adult are not etymologically related (in other words, adultery didn’t grow out of adult in the way that punditry grew out of pundit). Although both words come from Latin and share the same first five letters, adultery is from adulterāre (“to pollute, defile, commit adultery”), a word formed ultimately from the Latin elements ad- “to, near” and alter “other.” English adult comes from adultus, which is the past participle of the Latin word adolescere (“to grow up”).

In legal use there is a difference between adultery and fornication. Adultery is only used when at least one of the parties involved (either male or female) is married, whereas fornication may be used to describe two people who are unmarried (to each other or anyone else) engaging in consensual sexual intercourse.

Origin and Etymology of adultery

Middle English adultrye, adultery, alteration (conformed to Latin adulterium) of avoutrie, advoutrie, alteration (with addition of suffix -ie ²-y) of avoutre, borrowed from Anglo-French avulteire, avouteire, going back to Latin adulterium, from adulterāre "to defile by adultery, commit adultery with, pollute" + -ium deverbal noun suffix — more at ¹adulterate

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 15th century

in the meaning defined above

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adultery Synonyms

Other Sociology Terms

bourgeois, ethos, eugenics, exurb, incommunicado, intelligentsia, megalopolis, metrosexual, mores, subculture

ADULTERY Defined for English Language Learners

adultery

noun

Definition of adultery for English Language Learners

: sex between a married person and someone who is not that person's wife or husband

Law Dictionary

adultery

noun adul·tery \ ə-ˈdəl-tə-rē \

legal Definition of adultery

: voluntary sexual activity (as sexual intercourse) between a married man and someone other than his wife or between a married woman and someone other than her husband; also : the crime of adultery — compare fornication

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