pornography

American  

[pawr-nog-ruh-fee] / pɔrˈnɒg rə fi /

noun

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

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

Etymology

Origin of pornography

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

Example Sentences

In March, app-addicted Indonesia started enforcing a social media ban for under-16s in a bid to shield some 70 million children from the threats of online pornography, cyberbullying and internet addiction.

From Barron's • May 6, 2026

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation, a nonprofit that has urged improved child-safety protections online and has sought to restrict access to pornography, called on the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to investigate X.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 8, 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

Related Words

• smut