orgasm

American  

[awr-gaz-uhm] / ˈɔr gæz əm /

noun

orgasms plural

1. the physical and emotional sensation experienced at the peak of sexual excitation, usually resulting from stimulation of the sexual organ and usually accompanied in the male by ejaculation.

2. an instance of experiencing this.

3. intense or unrestrained excitement.

4. an instance or occurrence of such excitement.

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verb (used without object)

1. to have an orgasm.

orgasm British  

/ ˈɔːɡæzəm /

noun

1. the most intense point during sexual excitement, characterized by extremely pleasurable sensations and in the male accompanied by ejaculation of semen

2. rare intense or violent excitement

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orgasm Scientific  

/ ôr′găz′əm /

1. The peak of sexual excitement, characterized by strong feelings of pleasure and bv a series of involuntary contractions of the muscles of the genitals, usually accompanied by the ejaculation of semen by the male.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• superorgasm
  noun
• orgasmic
  adjective
• orgastic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• orgasms
  plural

Etymology

Origin of orgasm

First recorded in 1640–50; from New Latin orgasmus, Greek orgasmós, derivative of orgân “to swell, be excited”

Explanation

An orgasm is a moment of intense pleasure that is the culmination of sex. People really enjoy orgasms. A man or a woman gets an orgasm during sex, and it doesn't really matter what kind of sex. Even solo sex — masturbation — produces orgasms. People like orgasms so much that when they enjoy something else — like good music — they sometimes say they had an eargasm. A great movie could bring a fangasm. A vulgar, slang way of saying someone is orgasming is to say they're coming or cumming.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

orgasm orgasms

I think it’s wonderful that we’ve got so many men in hetersexual relationships who value female orgasm, and giving pleasure.

From Slate ● Jun. 3, 2021

Divorce our cultural and acquired ideas about orgasm from our scientific approach, and treat it like a poorly-understood biological process.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 20, 2017

Another big myth has been exposed at Dr Cindy Meston's orgasm lab at the University of Texas at Austin.

From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2016

Other studies have used twin registers to try to determine who gets Alzheimer's disease, why some people develop attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and what influences a woman's ability to orgasm.

From US News ● May 18, 2016

Hence simple fevers are of two kinds; first, the febris irritativa, or fever with strong pulse; which consists of a previous torpor of the heart, arteries, and capillaries, and a succeeding orgasm of those vessels.

From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Darwin, Erasmus

By every metric that matters – standing ovations, media orgasms and, above all, Nielsen ratings – Jon Stewart’s return to “The Daily Show” is a smashing success.

From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2024

Here are columns by Maureen Dowd on orgasms and classical music and Ross Douthat on the Hollywood writers’ strike.

From New York Times ● May 21, 2023

There are more than a dozen theories about the evolution of orgasms, most proposed decades or more ago.

From Science Magazine ● Aug. 1, 2016

Benevolent sexism isn’t a direct cause to fewer orgasms, but rather a contributing factor — one piece of a very complicated puzzle.

From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2016

Comparisons between the orgasms of collective madness which accompanied the Russian welter, on the one hand, and the French Revolution, on the other, are unfruitful and often misleading.

From The Inside Story of the Peace Conference by Dillon, Emile Joseph