Synonyms of mating

mating 1 of 2

noun

as in sex

sexual union involving penetration of the vagina by the penis

if the mare doesn't get pregnant from this mating, you don't have to pay for the second try

Synonyms & Similar Words

• sex
• intercourse
• relations
• copulation
• breeding
• coitus
• coupling
• sexuality
• making love
• copulating
• coition
• lovemaking
• sex act
• commerce
• sexual intercourse
• sexual relations
• getting it on
• fornication
• congress
• insemination
• safe sex
• carnality
• dalliance
• hanky-panky
• whoopee

mating

2 of 2

verb

present participle of mate

as in sleeping

to engage in sexual intercourse

cats conceive almost every time they mate

Synonyms & Similar Words

• sleeping
• breeding
• doing it
• copulating
• having sex
• fornicating
• fooling around

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of mating

Noun

In any number of species—elephant seals, red deer, rattlesnakes—the privilege of mating is settled by a fight. — Elizabeth Kolbert, New Yorker, 22 June 2026

Unsual mating rituals are emerging in modern times. — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 2 June 2026

Male bowerbirds are notorious for their complex mating rituals. — ArsTechnica, 2 June 2026

Both food and mating motivate humpback journeys in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 19 June 2026

The park is a stop on the Indiana Birding Trail, offering chances to see a diverse array of species at different stages of migration, mating and raising their young. — Usa Today Network, USA Today, 10 June 2026

The onset of mating season this spring has escalated tensions, with the males’ loud early morning mating calls particularly aggravating residents. — Amarachi Orie, CNN Money, 14 May 2026

Researchers from the University of Hawaii have also found that Olowalu in particular is a mating hub for tiger sharks, according to Hawaii News Now. — Charlotte Phillipp, PEOPLE, 24 May 2026

And Jack Brand, an aquatic ecologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, wanted to know how illicit drugs like cocaine might change fish behavior, like foraging and mating. — Regina G. Barber, NPR, 12 May 2026

Verb

By mating with sterile flies, the females don't produce more flies and outbreaks can eventually be halted. — ABC News, 8 June 2026

By mating with sterile flies, the females don’t produce more flies and outbreaks can eventually be halted. — Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2026

The mass release of dud studs elbows out fertile males, preventing them from mating with females, which generally only mate once. — ArsTechnica, 3 June 2026

Early summer is mating season for alligators. — Cindy Krischer Goodman, Sun Sentinel, 3 June 2026

Darkness is essential to fireflies for mating and increasing their population. — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 6 June 2026

The New World screwworm's larvae eat live flesh and fluids instead of dead material, with females laying their eggs in open wounds and mucous membranes after mating only once in their monthslong lives. — Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 12 June 2026

For the first time in 200 years, red-and-green macaws are mating in the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, according to BBC Wildlife. — Christopher Edwards, PEOPLE, 11 May 2026

Bucks will regrow their antlers every year ahead of mating season, and then shed them during the late winter, after mating season is over, according to Mississippi State University. — Julia Gomez, USA Today, 30 June 2026