rape

1 of 4

noun (1)

ˈrāp 

1

: unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against a person's will or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent because of mental illness, mental deficiency, intoxication, unconsciousness, or deception compare sexual assault, statutory rape

2

: an outrageous violation

3

: an act or instance of robbing or despoiling or carrying away a person by force

rape

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verb

raped; raping

transitive verb

1

: to commit rape on

2

a

: despoil

b

archaic : to seize and take away by force

raper noun

rape

3 of 4

noun (2)

: an Old World herb (Brassica napus) of the mustard family grown as a forage crop and for its seeds which yield rapeseed oil and are a bird food compare canola

rape

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noun (3)

: the pomace of grapes left after expression of the juice

Synonyms

Noun (1)

• violation
• assault

Verb

• violate
• assault
• force

Examples of rape in a Sentence

Noun (1)

an international law defining rape as a war crime

the legend of the rape of the Sabine women by the ancient Romans was frequently depicted in classical art

Verb

He is accused of raping the girl.

She was raped by a fellow student.

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

The chatbot had no hands with which to tie her, no body with which to rape her. —Lila Shroff, The Atlantic, 14 July 2025

When that man drugs and attempts to rape a woman in his room, Harrison interrupts, coming to blows with the predator in the bathroom. —Nick Caruso, TVLine, 11 July 2025

Police officers spoke to the 35-year-old alleged victim who told them she had been assaulted and raped by Romero on July 4. —Rick Sobey, Boston Herald, 10 July 2025

Fisherman, 39, was charged in December with pinning down a woman as Oren and Alon Alexander took turns raping her in a luxurious Miami Beach hi-rise on New Year’s Eve in 2016. —Miami Herald, 8 July 2025

Former University of Kansas and NBA player Ben McLemore has been found guilty of raping a 21-year old woman at a Lake Oswego, Oregon, house party that took place in October 2021, ESPN and KGW8-TV of Portland have reported. —Shreyas Laddha, Kansas City Star, 4 July 2025

After several women came forward with claims that the musician had raped them, the Bad Boy Records founder denied all of the allegations in a statement to PEOPLE in December 2023. —Jordana Comiter, People.com, 2 July 2025

In 2019, a Hamilton County judge set bond at $5 million for a priest accused of raping an altar boy decades earlier. —David Ferrara, The Enquirer, 2 July 2025

These incidents have drawn comparisons to an infamous 1995 case in which three U.S. servicemembers were convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl on her way home from school in Okinawa. —Christopher Cann, USA Today, 26 June 2025

Noun

Corrections officials say two Arkansas prison employees errantly helped Grant Hardin, the former police chief convicted of murder and rape, escape from a prison in May. —Eduardo Cuevas, USA Today, 13 July 2025

The show begins in 1989 when five Black and Latino teenagers are wrongfully accused of rape in the Central Park Jogger case. —Sara Netzley, EW.com, 13 July 2025

Miro Fischer’s debut feature, the tale of a young girl who learns that her brother has been accused of rape, is a German co-production with Spain’s Nephilim Producciones. —John Hopewell, Variety, 11 July 2025

South Korean singer and former NCT member Moon Taeil will serve three and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to rape. —Vivian Kwarm, New York Daily News, 10 July 2025

His tenure in Tallahassee was marked by significant controversy, including a high-profile Title IX lawsuit against the school by a woman who accused former FSU star quarterback Jameis Winston of rape. —Daniel Libit, Sportico.com, 9 July 2025

In 2021, the Wilmington Police Department submitted a kit from a 1996 rape in which the woman had also been beaten, held against her will and abandoned on the side of the road. —Veronica Fulton, NBC news, 6 July 2025

The Ventura lawsuit that set the stage for this federal indictment alleged rape and physical abuse, and the hotel surveillance video corroborated the latter; those images remain in the public consciousness. —Sheldon Pearce, NPR, 3 July 2025

An investigation was started in February 2022 after the first report of rape was made, the police said, adding that Partey is scheduled to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on August 5. —Ben Morse, CNN Money, 4 July 2025

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English, "violent seizure, abduction of a woman with the intent of sexually assaulting her," borrowed from Anglo-French rap, rape, probably borrowed from Medieval Latin rapum, noun derivative of rapiō, rapere "to seize and carry off, abduct a woman with the intent of sexually assaulting her" — more at rape entry 2

Note: Use of this word in its most predominant modern meaning is attested early in legal Anglo-French and British Medieval Latin, though the precise derivational pathways are uncertain. The Latin word may have been based on the Anglo-French word, but both must ultimately be dependent on the classical Latin verb. Note that rapum exists alongside classical Latin raptus, the regularly derived u-stem verbal noun, used in British Medieval Latin in the sense "rape." Compare ravish.

Verb

Middle English rapen "to abduct a woman with the intent of sexually assaulting her," borrowed from Anglo-French raper, borrowed from Medieval Latin rapiō, rapere "to seize and carry off, abduct a woman with of the intent of sexually assaulting her," going back to Latin, "to seize and carry off, take away by force, carry off a woman with the intent of sexually assaulting her, carry or sweep along, impel forcibly (to a course of conduct), snatch up, gather quickly" — more at rapid entry 1

Note: The verb rapen in its predominant modern sense is rare in Middle English, the more common verb meaning "to rape" being ravisshen "to ravish." The Middle English Dictionary lists rapen with a meaning "to carry off, transport (the soul to heaven)," but all forms cited are for a past participle rapt, rapte, which appears to have been borrowed directly from Medieval Latin raptus, past participle of rapere in this sense (see rapt). See also the note at rape entry 1.

Noun (2)

Middle English, "turnip, Brassica napus," borrowed from Latin rāpa, rāpum "turnip"; akin to Germanic *rōbjōn- "turnip" (whence Middle Dutch & Middle Low German rove, Old High German ruoba, ruoppa), Lithuanian rópė, Greek rháphys, rhápys (all going back to an earlier *rāp(h)-), Church Slavic (eastern) rěpa, Polish rzepa (going back to *rēp-), Welsh erfin "turnips, rape," Breton irvin (going back to *arb-īno-, perhaps metathesized from *rab-), all from a substratal pre-Indo-European word of uncertain form

Note: The Greek forms with fluctuating aspiration, as well as the derivative rháphanos "any of various cultivars of Brassica oleracea, radish," with the suffix -anos, argue for membership in the same pre-Greek substratum as a number of other Greek words; whether the other European forms are borrowed from this etymon or are part of a more general substratum is unclear (see Robert Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2010, p. 1277). Not related to Old Norse rófa "tail" (see Guus Kroonen, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Brill, 2013, p. 415).

Noun (3)

French râpe grape stalk

First Known Use

Noun (1)

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Verb

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2b

Noun (2)

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Noun (3)

1657, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing rape

• acquaintance rape
• anti-rape
• date rape
• date rape drug
• gang rape
• oilseed rape
• statutory rape

Rhymes for rape

• ape
• cape
• crape
• crepe
• drape
• gape
• grape
• pape
• scape
• scrape
• shape
• snape

Kids Definition

rape

1 of 3 noun

ˈrāp 

: an herb related to the mustards that is grown for animals to graze on and for its seeds which are used as birdseed and as a source of oil

compare canola

rape

2 of 3 verb

raped; raping

1

archaic : to take away by force

2

: to have sexual relations with by force

raper noun

rapist

ˈrā-pəst 

noun

rape

3 of 3 noun

: an act or instance of raping

Etymology

Noun

Middle English rape "the herb rape," from Latin rapa, rapum "turnip, rape"

Verb

Middle English rapen "to take away by force," from Latin rapere "to seize"

Medical Definition

rape

1 of 3 noun

ˈrāp 

: a European herb (Brassica napus) of the mustard family grown as a forage crop and for its seeds which yield rapeseed oil and are a bird food see canola sense 1

rape

2 of 3 transitive verb

raped; raping

: to commit rape on

rape

3 of 3 noun

: unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent compare sexual assault, statutory rape

Legal Definition

rape

1 of 2 transitive verb

raped; raping

: to commit rape on

raper noun

rapist noun

rape

2 of 2 noun

: unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent because of mental illness, mental deficiency, intoxication, unconsciousness, or deception see also statutory rape

Note: The common-law crime of rape involved a man having carnal knowledge of a woman not his wife through force and against her will, and required at least slight penetration of the penis into the vagina. While some states maintain essentially this definition of rape, most have broadened its scope especially in terms of the sex of the persons and the nature of the acts involved. Marital status is usually irrelevant. Moreover, the crime is codified under various names, including first degree sexual assault, sexual battery, unlawful sexual intercourse, and first degree sexual abuse.

Etymology

Transitive verb

Latin rapere to seize and take away by force