copulation
English
Etymology
From Middle French copulation, from Latin copulo (“I join, unite, connect”).
Pronunciation
Noun
copulation (countable and uncountable, plural copulations)
- (countable) The act of coupling or joining; union; conjunction.
- (uncountable) Sexual procreation between a man and a woman or transfer of the sperm from male to female; usually applied to the mating process in nonhuman animals; coitus; coition.
- c. 1909, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, Letter VIII:
- Solomon, who was one of the Deity's favorities, had a copulation cabinet composed of seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines.
- 1979, J.G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company, chapter 30:
- In the dusky streets around me ruled an innocent and open copulation. The entire town mated together, in the leafy bowers that had sprung up among the washing-machines and television sets in the shopping mall, on the settees and divans by the furniture store, in the tropical paradises of the suburban gardens.
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:copulation
Derived terms
Translations
the act of joining
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the coming together of male and female in sexual intercourse
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Anagrams
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin cōpulātiōnem. By surface analysis, copuler + -ation.
Pronunciation
Noun
copulation f (plural copulations)
Related terms
Further reading
- “copulation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Categories:
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- en:Sex
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