Word.ws English Dictionary

amplection

amplection noun: an embrace.

Noun

amplection (plural amplections)

  1. (archaic, rare) An embrace.
    • Here let us cross the river Taw to Instow, on the left hand, which some call Yonestow, stands as a witness to the marriage of Taw and Torridge, which with their close amplections have demi-insulated this parish.a. 1636, Thomas Westcote, A view of Devonshire in MDCXXX, published 1845, page 310
    • Yet such are the Authors whom M.N. followeth and adoreth, witness his wise amplexion of Helmont's Archoeus […].1665, Robert Sprackling, Medela ignorantiae, page 81
  2. (dated, uncommon) A form of pseudocopulation, found chiefly in amphibians and horseshoe crabs, in which a male grasps a female with his front legs; amplexus.
    • The mating amplexion in this species is axillary, as described for other species of the Bufonidae.1927, Tracy Storer, A Synopsis of the Amphibia of California, University Of California Press, page 177
    • The first two pairs of legs are chelate or sub- chelate, better developed in males and useful for prehension primarily in copulatory amplexion.1961, J Laurens Barnard, “Amphipoda”, in Peter Gray, editor, The Encyclopedia of the Biological Sciences, Reinhold Pub. Corp, page 28

Examples of amplection in a sentence

  • The amplection of the ruddy goose, the swan’s accolade, mongoose embrace, and the interlacing of pigeons .... she has all these gracious gestures at command.1927, Edward Powys Mathers, transl., The lessons of a bawd, translation of the Kuṭṭanīmata of Dāmodaragupta, page 70:
  • The most commonly observed amplection in the laboratory is one in which the left second gnathopod is reversed and hooked under the posterior portion of the fifth peraeon segment of the female.1988, C. Lavett Smith, editor, Fisheries Research in the Hudson River, State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 262:

Forms of amplection

pluralamplections
alternative formamplexion

Origin of amplection

From Middle English amplection, amplexion, from Latin amplexiō (“act of embracing”), from amplex-, past participial stem of amplector (“surround; embrace”), + -iō. In this form, with remodelling after Latin amplector. By surface analysis, amplect + -ion.

Questions about amplection

What does amplection mean?
Amplection means an embrace.
How do you use amplection in a sentence?
The amplection of the ruddy goose, the swan’s accolade, mongoose embrace, and the interlacing of pigeons .... she has all these gracious gestures at command.
What part of speech is amplection?
Amplection is a noun.
What is the plural of amplection?
The plural of amplection is amplections.

Words near amplection in the dictionary

  1. amplectant
  2. amplected
  3. amplectent
  4. amplectic
  5. amplecting
  6. amplection
  7. amplections
  8. amplects
  9. Amplefordian
  10. Amplefordians
  11. Ampleforth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: amplection (page history and authors). 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.

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