intercourse
Americannoun
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intercourses
plural
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sexual intercourse, especially coitus.
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dealings or communication between individuals, groups, countries, etc.
- Synonyms:
- traffic, trade, commerce, sexual relations, sex act, sex, relations, copulation
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interchange of thoughts, feelings, etc.
noun
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communication or exchange between individuals; mutual dealings
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of intercourse
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English intercurse, from Medieval Latin intercursus “communication, trading,” Latin “a running between, interposition”; see inter-, course
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That meant LGBTQ+ and single people who historically had been shut out by definitions of infertility as a failure to conceive after six to 12 months of unprotected heterosexual intercourse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
These two were having intercourse, in the old-fashioned sense of the word — the give-and-get idea swap described by the medieval Latin intercursus: “communication to and fro.”
From Salon ● Feb. 9, 2025
She followed all the old wives’ tales—including “drugging” her husband with supplements, timing intercourse, and eating acidic foods—in an attempt to maximize the odds that her third child would be a daughter.
From Slate ● May 7, 2024
Emergency contraception - including emergency contraceptive pills and copper-bearing intrauterine devices - can prevent about 95% of pregnancies when taken within five days of intercourse, the WHO says.
From BBC ● May 31, 2023
“Should our whole intercourse consist of an exchange of compliments? Ma foil”.
From "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin
In his intercourses with the queen of Scots as ambassador from Elizabeth, he had already shown himself her zealous partisan.
From Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth by Lucy Aikin
What will be the spontaneous impression produced by looking back on bygone intercourses in life?
From Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character by Edward Bannerman Ramsay
But it was in the intercourses of social life that the superiority of Opposition was most incontestable.
From The American Quarterly Review No. XVIII, June 1831 (Vol 9) by Various
In all the intercourses of her family, since the first rough usage which she remembered, there had never been anything sweet or gracious.
From The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
Yet to me it seemed that the lads actually sought to avoid these casual intercourses.
From Fibble, D.D. by Tony Sarg
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
