orgy

noun

or·​gy ˈȯr-jē 

plural orgies

1

: secret ceremonial rites held in honor of an ancient Greek or Roman deity and usually characterized by ecstatic singing and dancing

Roman orgies in honor of Bacchus

2

a

: drunken revelry

b

: a sexual encounter involving many people

also : an excessive sexual indulgence (see indulgence sense 1a)

3

: excessive indulgence (see indulgence sense 1a) in something especially to satisfy an inordinate appetite or craving

an orgy of destruction

a national orgy of thrill seeking and risk taking

—K. T. Greenfeld

Did you know?

Unsexy Orgies

Orgy is a word which for many immediately conjures salacious imagery and blushed cheeks. However, both the oldest and the most recently-adopted senses of this word contain meanings which may not be at all sexual in nature. The word first came into English in the middle of the 16th century in reference to secret ceremonial rites, particularly those of the Romans and ancient Greeks, which involved singing and dancing. The licentious meaning was not added until the beginning of the 18th century. And the most recent senses (“a riotous display” and “a manifestation of extreme indulgence”), which may describe such things as an assembly of garish colors or a spectacle of destruction, appear to date from the late 19th century.

Examples of orgy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

What ensued was an orgy of finger-pointing and budget slashing. —Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 21 Apr. 2025

There are sections on orgies and masturbation and voyeurism and how to behave in a porno theater. —Dwight Garner, New York Times, 7 Apr. 2025

Recent claims, in the conservative press, of a twelve-person orgy among officials at a Veterans Affairs medical center in Tennessee, offer salacious elaboration on this theme of erotic pathology, casting the bureaucrat in the bedroom as at once perverse and virtuosic. —Charlie Tyson, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2025

The real prize at this feast, however, will be those molecules that most efficiently store energy, your fatty acids, so that the caloric orgy reaches its apotheosis in that fattiest of all your organs, that thing which seemed most you: your brain. —Cutter Wood, Harper's Magazine, 28 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle French orgie, from Latin orgia, plural, from Greek; akin to Greek ergon work — more at work

First Known Use

circa 1561, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

orgy

noun

or·​gy ˈȯr-jē 

plural orgies

1

: secret ceremonies in honor of an ancient Greek or Roman god usually celebrated by wild singing and dancing

2

: something (as a party) that resembles an orgy in lack of control