copulation
Americannoun
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sexual intercourse.
-
a joining together or coupling.
Etymology
Origin of copulation
1350–1400; Middle English copulacion < Latin cōpulātiōn- (stem of copulātio ) a binding together. See copulate, -ion
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.
A praying mantis consumes her mate after copulation, termites suck blood out of wounded peers, and mosquitoes snack on larvae.
From New York Times • Mar. 25, 2022
This "forced extra-pair copulation," as it's known, is a fairly rare strategy across birds as a whole.
From Salon • Jul. 25, 2021
“Witnessing white pointer copulation is informally referred to among scholars as the ‘holy grail’ of white shark ecology,” Crawford, a marine biologist from the University of Guelph in Canada, told the Guardian.
From The Guardian • Sep. 4, 2020
As if that weren’t bad enough, female tarantulas have been known to eat the males if they linger too long after copulation.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 1, 2016
In the laboratory, male gypsy moths have attempted copulation with chips of wood, vermiculite, and other small, inanimate objects, so long as they were suitably impregnated with gyplure.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
