as in sex
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Recent Examples of fornication
Songs were also frequently flagged as dance music—while authorities viewed singing as having a proper place in praising God, dancing was totally forbidden as a gateway to fornication.
—
Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 9 May 2025
Strong was promoted to Hand of the King after King Viserys banished Otto Hightower from court in the wake of allegations of fornication between Princess Rhaenyra and Prince Daemon.
—Sean T. Collins, Vulture, 13 June 2024
If the apparent maidservant was actually a man committing fornication that might lead to another servant’s falling pregnant, then Hall was a materially destabilizing influence in the community.
—Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 26 Aug. 2024
Co-created by the Egyptian American comedian Ramy Youssef, the show gives viewers a peek into the dirty mind of an unmarried Muslim twentysomething struggling to reconcile his duelling devotions: faith and fornication.
—Jennifer Wilson, The New Yorker, 29 Apr. 2024
Cleon is in the throes of hot, sweaty fornication with his robot aid, Laura Birn's Eto, when a group of assassins infiltrate his quarters and attack.
—Nick Romano, EW.com, 10 July 2023
Because surely, surely, the housewives of Dublin were not so lustful that chance encounters with tradesmen led immediately to attacks of passion and fornication?
—Mary Costello, The New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2023
Charlotte, Harry, Lisa, and Herbert are gathered to send their kids off to summer camp, guaranteeing a few weeks of unfettered fornication.
—Aimée Lutkin, ELLE, 6 July 2023
Anthony Mackie and Zoë Chao star as a pair of astronauts stranded aboard a NASA shuttle that gets lost in space, and their decent onscreen chemistry helps fuel a rom-com tackling questions of fidelity, friendship and, well, fornication, as the would-be couple endlessly drifts through the cosmos.
—Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Mar. 2023
Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 9 May 2025
Strong was promoted to Hand of the King after King Viserys banished Otto Hightower from court in the wake of allegations of fornication between Princess Rhaenyra and Prince Daemon.
—Sean T. Collins, Vulture, 13 June 2024
If the apparent maidservant was actually a man committing fornication that might lead to another servant’s falling pregnant, then Hall was a materially destabilizing influence in the community.
—Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 26 Aug. 2024
Co-created by the Egyptian American comedian Ramy Youssef, the show gives viewers a peek into the dirty mind of an unmarried Muslim twentysomething struggling to reconcile his duelling devotions: faith and fornication.
—Jennifer Wilson, The New Yorker, 29 Apr. 2024
Cleon is in the throes of hot, sweaty fornication with his robot aid, Laura Birn's Eto, when a group of assassins infiltrate his quarters and attack.
—Nick Romano, EW.com, 10 July 2023
Because surely, surely, the housewives of Dublin were not so lustful that chance encounters with tradesmen led immediately to attacks of passion and fornication?
—Mary Costello, The New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2023
Charlotte, Harry, Lisa, and Herbert are gathered to send their kids off to summer camp, guaranteeing a few weeks of unfettered fornication.
—Aimée Lutkin, ELLE, 6 July 2023
Anthony Mackie and Zoë Chao star as a pair of astronauts stranded aboard a NASA shuttle that gets lost in space, and their decent onscreen chemistry helps fuel a rom-com tackling questions of fidelity, friendship and, well, fornication, as the would-be couple endlessly drifts through the cosmos.
—Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Mar. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fornication
Noun
-
Many of them also demonstrated against President Trump's recent executive orders and policies targeting transgender people and recognizing only two unchangeable sexes, male and female.—
Mandalit del Barco,
NPR,
29 June 2025
-
On the first day of his term, Trump signed an executive order that recognized two sexes, male and female, a dictum that has moved across all departments under his jurisdiction.—
Jenny Jarvie,
Los Angeles Times,
25 June 2025
Noun
-
Paul, upon learning of their coitus, does not take it well.—
Esther Zuckerman,
IndieWire,
19 May 2025
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Villanueva, his instincts honed by his decades of service as a lawman, intuits that the only way a human being can reasonably incur a rug burn is via high-friction hotel room coitus with a 250-pound man.—
Chris Klimek,
Vulture,
20 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Things escalated, and soon enough Jane was undressing and having intercourse with Don.—
Ethan Shanfeld,
Variety,
6 June 2025
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Until recently, most insurance companies followed the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s definition for fertility, which defined infertility as a condition in which heterosexual couples couldn’t conceive after a year of unprotected intercourse.—
Adrianna Rodriguez,
USA Today,
4 June 2025
Noun
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Put another way, the three latest Brood X generation map perfectly to milestones in my life cycle: birth, coition, procreation.—
Ross Kenneth Urken,
Scientific American,
14 June 2021
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But the course of the hunt itself is unnameable and uncontrollable, like coition.—
Roberto Calasso,
Harper's Magazine,
30 Mar. 2020
Noun
-
No, thank you, to this mentally ill request for lovemaking.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
17 May 2025
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But nothing gets at the unabashed nature of Babygirl’s eroticism like that shot of Samuel tenderly cradling his lover like a child after having spent long hours holed up in a hotel room together indulging in lovemaking and games of dominance and submission.—
Alison Willmore,
Vulture,
25 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
American society and our relations with other societies are driven by the competition/conflict choice.—
Letters to the Editor,
Orlando Sentinel,
4 Jan. 2025
-
Insiders describe relations between her and brother Santo as tense and combative.—
Mattia Dognini,
The Hollywood Reporter,
3 Jan. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Fornication.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fornication. Accessed 15 Jul. 2025.
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