copulate
Americanverb (used without object)
adjective
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
copulatesimple
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copulatessimple
-
have copulatedperfect
-
has copulatedperfect
-
am copulatingprogressive
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are copulatingprogressive
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is copulatingprogressive
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have been copulatingperfect progressive
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has been copulatingperfect progressive
Past
-
copulatedsimple
-
had copulatedperfect
-
was copulatingprogressive
-
were copulatingprogressive
-
had been copulatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of copulate
1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin cōpulātus bound together. See copula, -ate 1
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:
For example, male peacocks with spectacularly feathered tails get sexually selected more often to copulate with fertile females than do less well-ornamented males.
From Salon ● Jun. 19, 2022
Now, they have more information on how adults copulate, when they come back to feed their young, and how often they incubate the chicks.
From Slate ● Apr. 29, 2021
“The diseased males will also attempt to copulate with the uninfected females, exposing them to even more spores,” UConn’s research team said in a statement.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2020
About five percent of crows will attempt to copulate with other crows that have joined the choir invisible.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 30, 2018
Scorpions copulate with the ventral surfaces in contact.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 3 "Apollodorus" to "Aral" by Various
He accepts Aitcheson's statement that the Macacus rhesus, in Simla, copulates in October, and adds that in the very different climate of the plains it appears to copulate in May.
From Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 The Evolution of Modesty; The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity; Auto-Erotism by Ellis, Havelock
Mr. Collinson also states, that it is certain that the Siberian dog not only copulates with the wolf, but with the fox also.
From The Dog by Youatt, William
The moth emerges from the cocoon in the latter part of the summer, copulates, lays its eggs, and of course dies.
Conroy said he recently introduced a pair of the daytime octopuses and believes the two animals copulated.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 30, 2015
In a new study, researchers placed laboratory mice that had recently copulated on a regimen of artificial daylight.
From Science Magazine ● May 23, 2012
Amourous male meadow voles can tell how many partners his potential fragrant partner has copulated with, all by her smell and that of rival males nearby.
From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2011
"Ten percent of the exposed genetic males developed into functional females that copulated with unexposed males and produced viable eggs," the researchers wrote.
From Reuters ● Mar. 2, 2010
You know, Sir, that queens generally receive the males about the fifth or sixth day, and this queen had not copulated until the thirty-sixth.
From New observations on the natural history of bees by Huber, François
To my knowledge there’s no current crisis involving boars and sows copulating in public view and offending the sensibilities of Angelenos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2023
Bigger males monopolize females, physically separating small males from their partner if they spot them copulating.
From Salon ● Jun. 9, 2023
German emergency services called out to attend to nighttime disturbances are increasingly finding themselves confronted with copulating hedgehogs.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 5, 2019
During this period the female beetle releases the pheromone that makes the male abstain from copulating with her, allowing both to spend their time caring for the developing larvae.
From Reuters ● Mar. 22, 2016
The copulation of two coalescing cells, which in these cases often precedes the reproduction, cannot be regarded as a sexual act unless the two copulating plastids differ in size or structure.
From The Evolution of Man — Volume 1 by Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August
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.
