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Synonyms

pornography

American

[pawr-nog-ruh-fee] / pɔrˈnɒg rə fi /

noun

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

pornography British

/ pɔːˈnɒɡrəfɪ, ˌpɔːnəˈɡræfɪk /

noun

writings, pictures, films, etc, designed to stimulate sexual excitement
the production of such material

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

pornography Cultural

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.)

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

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

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

China’s Office of the National Working Group for the Elimination of Pornography and Illegal Publications kicked off its latest eight-month campaign in March.

From Washington Times • Dec. 8, 2021

The National Office Against Pornography and Illegal Publications said a number of local branches in Hubei province had also joined the crusade, which was seen by some online as an insult to the tutoring profession.

From Reuters • Aug. 11, 2021

Candy speaks at a Women Against Pornography meeting.

From Washington Post • Sep. 27, 2019

Perhaps the most prominent is Robert Jensen, a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, who in 2007 published the devastating book Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity.

From The Guardian • Oct. 25, 2010

Attorney General Edwin Meese's Commission on Pornography issued a report attacking the adult entertainment industry.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 21, 2010

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.