intercourse
Americannoun
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intercourses
plural
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sexual intercourse, especially coitus.
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dealings or communication between individuals, groups, countries, etc.
- Synonyms:
- traffic, trade, commerce, sexual relations, sex act, sex, relations, copulation
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interchange of thoughts, feelings, etc.
noun
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communication or exchange between individuals; mutual dealings
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of intercourse
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English intercurse, from Medieval Latin intercursus “communication, trading,” Latin “a running between, interposition”; see inter-, course
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:
That meant LGBTQ+ and single people who historically had been shut out by definitions of infertility as a failure to conceive after six to 12 months of unprotected heterosexual intercourse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
We don’t think about it in those terms, of course, but that was the obvious point for early humans with little knowledge of gestation and a weak understanding of the role of intercourse in procreation.
From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2024
She followed all the old wives’ tales—including “drugging” her husband with supplements, timing intercourse, and eating acidic foods—in an attempt to maximize the odds that her third child would be a daughter.
From Slate ● May 7, 2024
From dawn to dusk, observant Muslims the world over will refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual intercourse.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 10, 2024
Arthur said: "After all, Galahad is only a child! He has growing pains, perhaps. I don’t think we ought to judge him unkindly for little faults of social intercourse."
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
In all the intercourses of her family, since the first rough usage which she remembered, there had never been anything sweet or gracious.
From The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
He declares, not only in his official communications here, but in his private intercourses with the members of the committee, that this clause is indispensably necessary to the security and negotiability of these demand notes.
From Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet An Autobiography. by John Sherman
Our class distinctions, our artificial intercourses, our hypocritical professions, our deference for externals,—are they not the flimsiest pretences that ever were fashioned?
From A Day's Ride A Life's Romance by Charles James Lever
Here he spent the rest of days in devotional exercises in friendly intercourses with other Sufis and in religious instruction of the young.
From Mystics and Saints of Islam by Claud Field
It is asserted, that they understand each other in their commercial intercourses.
From An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia, Volume 1 by Alexander Hewatt
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
