adulterer

[uh-duhl-ter-er]

See more synonyms for adulterer on Thesaurus.com

noun

a person who commits adultery.

Origin of adulterer

1350–1400; earlier adulter adulterer (< Latin, back formation from adulterāre to defile; see adulterate) + -er¹; replacing Middle English avouter, avoutrer < Old French < Latin

Can be confusedadulterer adulterate

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for adulterer

gallant, flirt, debaucher, lover, operator, cruiser, swinger, chaser, adulterer, Casanova, womanizer

Examples from the Web for adulterer

Contemporary Examples of adulterer

By the time of this third episode of Season 1, we were well aware of Don as a liar, cad, and adulterer.
The 10 Most Essential TV Episodes From ‘Sopranos,’ ‘Breaking Bad,’ and More
Brett Martin
June 30, 2013
Suppose that I want to know if I am about to be caught as an adulterer, which is question 100.
The Best of Brit Lit
Peter Stothard
March 18, 2010

Historical Examples of adulterer

He was a spendthrift, he was an adulterer, he gambled, he equivocated.
Short Studies on Great Subjects
James Anthony Froude
It rejoiced to see the wife deceive the husband, and the adulterer fool him.
Folkways
William Graham Sumner
A man who has a wife and yet lives with another woman is an adulterer.
Mother Earth, Vol. 1 No. 3, May 1906
Various
The adulterer when taken in delicto is sometimes punished by death.
Ifugao Law
R. F. Burton
So, the adulterer, though a crime in law, the children are like the husband.
Brief Lives (Vol. 1 of 2)
John Aubrey

British Dictionary definitions for adulterer

adulterer

noun

a person who has committed adultery

Word Origin for adulterer

C16: originally also adulter, from Latin adulter, back formation from adulterāre to adulterate

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

Word Origin and History for adulterer

early 15c., earlier avouter (c.1300), avoutrer (late 14c.), agent noun from obsolete verb adulter "commit adultery; adulterate" (late 14c.), from Latin adulterare "to corrupt" (see adulteration).