adultery

Adultery is a consensual sexual relationship or encounter between someone who’s married and a person they’re not married to (who may or may not be married to someone else).

In other words, it can be between two people who are both married to other people, or between a married person and a nonmarried person. Typically, for something to be considered adultery, at least one of the partners must be married.

On the other hand, similar words like cheating, infidelity, and unfaithfulness can be used regardless of whether either person is married—they simply refer to a (usually sexual) relationship or encounter between people when one or both of them is in a committed relationship with someone else.

When it happens with someone other than one’s spouse, a long-term relationship (often called an affair), a single sexual encounter, or anything in between can be considered to constitute adultery. In some cases, a relationship may even be considered adultery when it’s nonsexual but intimate (this is sometimes called an emotional affair).

The word adultery is especially used in a religious context, in which it’s often considered a sin. For that reason, it’s often used with the verb commit. It’s also sometimes used in a legal context, such as during divorce proceedings. Adultery is a crime in some places (including in some U.S. states, though people aren’t often charged for it).

Adultery is associated with a considerable amount of stigma. The word adultery and its related terms are always used negatively and imply a critical judgment of such actions.

Someone who participates in adultery can be called an adulterer. Such people or relationships can be described as adulterous. The word adulteress specifically refers to a woman who has engaged in adultery. (It has been more common throughout history for women to be blamed—and punished—for adulterous relationships than men.)

Example: Adultery is a profound breach of trust in a marriage.

The first records of the word adultery come from the 1300s. It ultimately derives from the Latin verb adulterāre, meaning “to defile.” The same word is the basis of the English verb adulterate, meaning “to debase” or “to make impure.” Adultery involves adults, but the word adult is based on a different root.

“Thou shalt not commit adultery” is one of the Ten Commandments, and adultery is specifically prohibited by multiple religions and even some laws. In the past, adultery was sometimes used in a more general way to refer to any type of sexual activity considered sinful. Today, however, adultery typically means that at least one of the partners is married (whereas the word fornication is often used in a religious context to refer to any sex outside of marriage).

What are some other forms related to adultery?

• adulterer (noun)
• adulterous (adjective)
• adulteress (noun)

What are some synonyms for adultery?

• infidelity
• unfaithfulness
• cheating

What are some words that share a root or word element with adultery? 

• adulterate

What are some words that often get used in discussing adultery?

• commit
• affair
• marriage
• spouse
• husband
• wife
• sin
• sex
• extramarital
• relationship
• illicit
• divorce

What are some words adultery may be commonly confused with?

• adulteration

Adultery is typically used in a judgmental way.

Is dating before your Divorce is final considered adultery? Find out here. http://t.co/fKhKWhtmZd

— Lawyers.com (@Lawyerscom) September 5, 2013

The @BostonGlobe examines adultery, the increased opportunities for it, and whether the stigma is gone: http://t.co/AnelCKR9fY

— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) December 21, 2013

– and I also hugely enjoyed Fleishman Is In Trouble by @taffyakner, which takes the US adultery novel, spins it and flips it on its head. It's smart and witty and now, brilliantly, Taffy has written a covid-era coda, a kind of CD bonus track, for @TheCut
https://t.co/0SjbfBMwgt

— David Nicholls (@DavidNWriter) July 9, 2020