copulation
Americannoun
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sexual intercourse.
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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.
This "forced extra-pair copulation," as it's known, is a fairly rare strategy across birds as a whole.
From Salon • Jul. 25, 2021
The difficulty of securing enough calories to fabricate an ootheca may help explain why females of some mantid species famously engage in sexual cannibalism — consuming their mates after, or even during, copulation.
From New York Times • Sep. 22, 2017
Competition for females is tough among these polygynous birds, and those who settle down in a single spot had little chance of copulation.
From The Guardian • Jan. 9, 2017
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.
