adultery
/əˈdʌltəɹi/
adultery noun: sexual intercourse by a married person with someone other than their spouse. See more synonyms at Thesaurus:cuckoldry.
Noun
adultery (countable and uncountable, plural adulteries)
- Sexual intercourse by a married person with someone other than their spouse. See more synonyms at Thesaurus:cuckoldry
- She engaged in adultery because her spouse has a low libido, while hers is very high.
- So also that copulation which in one City is Matrimony, in another will be judged Adultery.1651, Thomas Hobbes, De Cive
- Lewdness or unchastity of thought as well as act, as forbidden by the sixth/seventh commandment; sinful sexual behavior as a category.
- Thou shalt not commit adultery.
- Faithlessness in religion.
- And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 3:9
- The fine and penalty formerly imposed for the offence of adultery.
- The intrusion of a person into a bishopric during the life of the bishop.
- Adulteration; corruption.
- Injury; degradation; ruin.
- […] you might wrest the Caduceus out of my hand, to the adultery and spoil of Nature […]1616, Ben Jonson, “Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists”, in Thomas Hodgkin, editor, The Works of Ben Jonson, published 1692, page 378
adultery meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
adultery in Hindi
- sexual intercourse by a married person with someone other than their spouse
- ज़िना zinā
adultery in Tamil
- இல்லிறப்பு, இல்லிறத்தல், பிறனில் விழைதல், பிறன்மனை நயத்தல்
adultery in Marathi
- व्यभिचार, परस्त्रीगमन
adultery in Urdu
- sexual intercourse by a married person with someone other than their spouse
- زنا zinā
More languagesFewer languages
- adultery in Bengali
- জিনা jina, পরকীয়া porokiẏa
- adultery in Telugu
- వ్యభిచారము vyabhicāramu
- adultery in Malayalam
- വ്യഭിചാരം vyabhicāraṁ
- adultery in Kannada
- ಹಾದರ, ಮರೆವಾಳ್, ಮರೆವಾಳ್ತನ, ಪಾರುಗೆಯ್ತ
- adultery in Punjabi
- ਜ਼ਨਾਹ zanāh
- adultery in Gujarati
- વ્યભિચાર
- adultery in Odia
- ବ୍ଯ଼ଭିଗ୍ଭର, ବ୍ଯ଼ଭିଚାର, ବ୍ଯ଼ଭିଗ୍ଭରତା
- adultery in Nepali
- व्यभिचार, व्यभिचारिणा
- adultery in Tagalog
- pangangalunya, pakikiapid
- adultery in Arabic
- خِيانة زَوْجِيَّة, زِنَا المُحْصَنَيْن zinā l-muḥṣanayn, زِنىً zinan, زِنَاء zināʔ
- adultery in Malay
- zina, mukah
- adultery in Indonesian
- zina
- adultery in Persian
- زنا zenâ, پلیدکاری palidkâri, زنای محصنه zenâ-ye mohsene, روسپیگری ruspi-gari
- adultery in Thai
- การทำชู้
- adultery in Vietnamese
- ngoại tình
Examples of adultery in a sentence
- Keppel, as her biographer Diana Souhami has written, "turned adultery into an art."
- Thou shalt commit adultery, or preadultery: If it feeleth good, do it.
- Vātsyāyana refers to Ahalyā as the active actress in the scene of adultery with Indra.
Synonyms of adultery
Forms of adultery
| plural | adulteries |
|---|
Origin of adultery
With change of suffix, from the Old French adultere (“violation of conjugal faith”) (in Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons, 12c.), a learnèd borrowing from Latin adulterium, from adulterō. Replaced the older form avoutrie, from the inherited Old French forms avouterie or aoulterie, while keeping its suffix. Compare French adultère (“adultery”). Displaced Old English ǣwbryċe. Not related to adult.
Words formed from adultery
- adulterize
- antiadultery
- commit adultery
Phrases with adultery
Questions about adultery
- What does adultery mean?
- Adultery means sexual intercourse by a married person with someone other than their spouse. See more synonyms at Thesaurus:cuckoldry.
- What is adultery in Hindi?
- Adultery in Hindi is ज़िना (zinā). See Adultery meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is adultery?
- Adultery is a noun.
- How do you pronounce adultery?
- Adultery is pronounced /əˈdʌltəɹi/.
- What is the plural of adultery?
- The plural of adultery is adulteries.
Words near adultery in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: adultery (page history and authors); adultery (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); adultery (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); জিনা (Bengali) (page history and authors); വ്യഭിചാരം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); adultery (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਜ਼ਨਾਹ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); adultery (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); adultery (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); adultery (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-adultery.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-adultery.wav.
Cite this entry: “adultery.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/adultery. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.