incest
Syllables: in·cest/ˈɪn.sɛst/
incest noun: sexual relations between close relatives, especially immediate family members and sometimes first cousins, usually considered taboo.
Noun
incest (usually uncountable, plural incests)
- Sexual relations between close relatives, especially immediate family members and sometimes first cousins, usually considered taboo.
- Genetic problems caused by incest are thought to have plagued many royal families in the Middle Ages.
- For a structuralist like Edmund Leach, the structure is the meaning. Genesis, for example, is about incest taboos; all the rest is noise and mystification.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light:Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, page 12
- Synonyms:
- inbreeding
- Antonyms:
- outbreeding
- Romantic relationships between close relatives, also widely taboo.
Verb
incest (third-person singular simple present incests, present participle incesting, simple past and past participle incested)
- To engage in incestuous sexual activities.
- I do not want anyone to feel that my lesbianism is a result of being incested.1994, Kathryn Carter, Interpretive Approaches to Interpersonal Communication
- Her erotic transference ultimately devolved into a revelation that she had been consistently incested by her brother2009, Antonino Ferro, The Analytic Field: A Clinical Concept, page 206
incest meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Telugu
incest in Hindi
- sexual relations between close relatives
- अगम्यागमन agamyāgman, अगम्यगमन agamyagman, सगोत्रगमन sagotragman, अजाचार ajācār, कुड़ुमचोदी kuṛumcodī
incest in Marathi
- अनाचार
incest in Bengali
- অজাচার, অগম্যাগমন
incest in Telugu
- sexual relations between close relatives
- అగమ్యాగమనము agamyāgamanamu
More languagesFewer languages
- incest in Kannada
- ನಿಷಿದ್ಧ ಸಂಭೋಗ, ಧರ್ಮವಿರುದ್ಧವಾದ ಸಂಭೋಗ, ಸಂಸಾರದ ರಕ್ತಸಂಬಂಧಿಗಳೊಡನೆ ಸಂಭೋಗ
- incest in Gujarati
- ગૌત્રગમન gautragaman
- incest in Sanskrit
- अगम्यागमन agamyāgamana
- incest in Nepali
- अनाचार
- incest in Tagalog
- insesto
- incest in Arabic
- زِنَا مَحَارِم zinā maḥārim, سِفَاح الْقُرْبَى sifāḥ al-qurbā
- incest in Malay
- sumbang mahram
- incest in Indonesian
- hubungan sedarah, inses, hubungan sumbang, hubungan sekerabat
- incest in Persian
- زنا با محارم zenâ bâ mahârem
- incest in Vietnamese
- loạn luân
Examples of incest in a sentence
- He was only Craster's whelp, an abomination born of incest, not the son of the King-beyond-the-Wall.2005, George R. R. Martin, A Feast for Crows: A Song of Ice and Fire, page 225:
- […] the most powerful of that bunch of immortal giants called Titans was Cronus, who “incested” with sister Rhea, who then birthed the Olympians (Zeus and his bunch) […]2011, Marvin Mengeling, Crows, Pete Rose, UFOs: And Other Pretty Pieces, page 2:
Synonyms of incest
Antonyms
Forms of incest
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | incests |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | incests |
| present participle | incesting |
| past participle | incested |
| past | incested |
Origin of incest
Learned borrowing from Latin incestus. Displaced Old English mǣġhǣmed (literally “relative-sex”). Doublet of inchaste.
Words formed from incest
- anti-incest
- cousincest
- dormcest
- fauxcest
- Folgercest
- hallcest
- incested
- incester
- incestic
- incesting
- incestism
- incestlike
- incestophile
- incestophilia
- incestophobe
- incestophobia
- incestophobic
- incestual
- incestualist
- incestuality
- incestualize
- incestually
- incestuous
- incestuously
- incestuousness
- proincest
- pro-incest
- pseudoincest
- selfcest
- sibcest
- siscest
- sistercest
- spiritual incest
- step-incest
- twincest
- Waycest
- wincest
- yaoicest
- yuricest
Words that rhyme with incest
Questions about incest
- What does incest mean?
- Incest means sexual relations between close relatives, especially immediate family members and sometimes first cousins, usually considered taboo.
- What is incest in Hindi?
- Incest in Hindi is अगम्यागमन (agamyāgman), अगम्यगमन (agamyagman), सगोत्रगमन (sagotragman). See Incest meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use incest in a sentence?
- He was only Craster's whelp, an abomination born of incest, not the son of the King-beyond-the-Wall.
- What part of speech is incest?
- Incest can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce incest?
- Incest is pronounced /ˈɪn.sɛst/.
- What is the plural of incest?
- The plural of incest is incests.
Words near incest in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: incest (page history and authors); incest (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); incest (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); incest (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); incest (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-incest.wav.
Cite this entry: “incest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/incest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.