pornography

American  

[pawr-nog-ruh-fee] / pɔrˈnɒg rə fi /

noun

• pornographies
  plural

1. sexually explicit videos, photographs, writings, or the like, whose purpose is to elicit sexual arousal.

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pornography British  

/ pɔːˈnɒɡrəfɪ, ˌpɔːnəˈɡræfɪk /

noun

1. writings, pictures, films, etc, designed to stimulate sexual excitement

2. the production of such material

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pornography Cultural  

1. Books, photographs, magazines, art, or music designed to excite sexual impulses and considered by public authorities or public opinion as in violation of accepted standards of sexual morality. American courts have not yet settled on a satisfactory definition of what constitutes pornographic material. (See obscenity.)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• antipornography
  noun
• pornographer
  noun
• antipornographic
  adjective
• nonpornographic
  adjective
• pornographic
  adjective
• unpornographic
  adjective
• pornographically
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pornographies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pornography

1840–50; < Greek pornográph ( os ) writing about harlots ( porno-, combining form of pórnē harlot + -graphos -graph ) + -y ³

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pornography pornographies

Ethics standards and popular opposition for years lumped military industries with tobacco and pornography as no-go clients for blue-chip lenders.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026

The Socialist leader announced a series of measures in Dubai on Tuesday to protect Spanish minors from harmful social media content such as violence and pornography.

From Barron's ● Feb. 4, 2026

The government pointed to measures including the Online Safety Act, which says social media companies will have to protect children from harmful material including pornography, material promoting self-harm, bullying and content encouraging dangerous stunts.

From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2025

DePape had planned to use Nancy Pelosi to “lure” Target 1, Linker said, whose research on feminism, pornography and gender roles he believed was at the “root of harm to children.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2023

He began making donations to worthy causes; he wouldn’t have sex, because he wasn’t married; he scorned profanity and pornography; and he attempted to follow the Ten Commandments in every detail.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

On one hand: in another of Nancy Meyers’s bourgeois pornographies.

From New York Times ● Oct. 6, 2015

Related Words

• smut