pornography

American  

[pawr-nog-ruh-fee] / pɔrˈnɒg rə fi /

noun

pornographies plural

1. sexually explicit videos, photographs, writings, or the like, whose purpose is to elicit sexual arousal.

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pornography British  

/ pɔːˈnɒɡrəfɪ, ˌpɔːnəˈɡræfɪk /

noun

1. writings, pictures, films, etc, designed to stimulate sexual excitement

2. the production of such material

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pornography Cultural  

1. Books, photographs, magazines, art, or music designed to excite sexual impulses and considered by public authorities or public opinion as in violation of accepted standards of sexual morality. American courts have not yet settled on a satisfactory definition of what constitutes pornographic material. (See obscenity.)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• antipornography
  noun
• pornographer
  noun
• antipornographic
  adjective
• nonpornographic
  adjective
• pornographic
  adjective
• unpornographic
  adjective
• pornographically
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pornographies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pornography

1840–50; < Greek pornográph ( os ) writing about harlots ( porno-, combining form of pórnē harlot + -graphos -graph ) + -y ³

Example Sentences

China’s Office of the National Working Group for the Elimination of Pornography and Illegal Publications kicked off its latest eight-month campaign in March.

From Washington Times • Dec. 8, 2021

The National Office Against Pornography and Illegal Publications said a number of local branches in Hubei province had also joined the crusade, which was seen by some online as an insult to the tutoring profession.

From Reuters • Aug. 11, 2021

The Amy, Vicky and Andy Child Pornography Assistance bill offers a way to help victims recover and includes a practical way to finance the restitution.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 15, 2018

In public, he created the President’s Commission on Obscenity and Pornography.

From Washington Post • Dec. 12, 2014

Perhaps the most prominent is Robert Jensen, a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, who in 2007 published the devastating book Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity.

From The Guardian • Oct. 25, 2010

Related Words

• smut