amatory

[ am-uh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee ]

adjective

1. of or relating to lovers or lovemaking; expressive of love:

   amatory poems; an amatory look.

   Synonyms: passionate, ardent, amorous

amatory

/ ˌæməˈtɔːrɪəl; ˈæmətərɪ /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or inciting sexual love or desire

Other Words From

• ama·tori·al·ly adverb
• pseudo·ama·tori·al adjective
• pseudo·ama·tory adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of amatory¹

1590–1600; < Latin amātōrius, equivalent to amā- (stem of amāre to love) + -tōrius -tory ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of amatory¹

C16: from Latin amātōrius, from amāre to love

Example Sentences

Lapine, making his feature film debut, doesn’t have the technique to turn this amatory whirl into a lyrical roundelay.

From Los Angeles Times

Go ahead and take it to the next level with these two, minus the amatory innuendo.

From Salon

To the English ear it might sound like an inadvisable amatory practice involving gasoline, but in its original language it actually means a treasure chamber of the mind.

From The Guardian

With what “late-assembled court of morals”? “Biography is a collection of holes tied together with string, and nowhere more so than with the sexual and amatory life,” he writes.

From New York Times

Living in daylight, the butterflies exchanged the drab, brown livery of many nighttime moths for a rich palette of colors, useful for broadcasting amatory signals to mates and warnings of toxicity to predators.

From New York Times