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pornography

UK/pɔːˈnɒɡ.ɹə.fi/US/pɔɹˈnɑ.ɡɹə.fi/

pornography noun: the explicit literary or visual depiction of sexual subject matter; any display of material of an erotic nature.

Noun

pornography (usually uncountable, plural pornographies)

(usually) The explicit literary or visual depiction of sexual subject matter; any display of material of an erotic nature.
- Many websites have a complete ban on pornography.
- What is pornography to one man is the laughter of genius to another.1929, D. H. Lawrence, Pornography and Obscenity, pamphlet, republished in 1998, Michael Herbert (editor), D. H. Lawrence: Selected Critical Writings, Oxford University Press, page 294
(broadly, usually) The depiction of (non-sexual) subject matter so that it elicits feelings analogous to erotic pleasure; any such depiction.
- "It's true," Vanya now, "look at the forms of capitalist expression. Pornographies of love, erotic love, Christian love, boy-and-his-dog, pornographies of sunsets, pornographies of killing, and pornographies of deduction — ahh, that sigh when we guess the murderer — all these novels, these films...1973, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 19, in Gravity's Rainbow, 1st US edition, New York: Viking Press, →ISBN, part 1: Beyond the Zero, page 155
(humorous, usually) The graphic, detailed, often gratuitous depiction of something.
- In The Four Pillars of Wisdom, he devotes a well-deserved chapter to the financial press and its weakness for "financial pornography"—lurid coverage of star money managers.2002 August 4, The Seattle Times

Verb

pornography (third-person singular simple present pornographies, present participle pornographying, simple past and past participle pornographied)

(transitive, uncommon) To turn into pornography.
- Their very being is so pornographied by automated content filters that they are largely barred from sexual expression online.2023, Alexander Monea, The Digital Closet: How the Internet Became Straight, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 3
- [JD] Vance also expressed concerns about the use of AI technology, adding that it was being used to fuel “hyper-pornographied slop”, sources at the meeting said.2026 January 10, Rajeev Syal, Jessica Elgot, quoting JD Vance, “David Lammy: JD Vance agrees that sexualised AI images on X are ‘unacceptable’”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London...
Synonyms:

pornify

pornography meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

pornography in Hindi

depiction of sexual subject matter with prurient intent: रतिचित्रण raticitraṇ, अश्लील फ़िल्म aślīl film

pornography in Tamil

depiction of sexual subject matter with prurient intent: போர்னோகிராபி pōrṉōkirāpi, பாலுணர்வுக் கிளர்ச்சியம் pāluṇarvuk kiḷarcciyam

pornography in Marathi

depiction of sexual subject matter with prurient intent: संभोगदर्शन sambhogdarśan, संभोगवर्णन sambhogvarṇan

pornography in Urdu

depiction of sexual subject matter with prurient intent: فحش fuhś, پورنوگرافی pornogrāfi

More languagesFewer languages

pornography in Bengali: পর্নোগ্রাফি pornōgraphi
pornography in Malayalam: അശ്ലീലവസ്തു, അശ്ലീലരചന, അശ്ലീലസാഹിത്യം, അശ്ലീലപുസ്തകം
pornography in Tagalog: pornograpiya
pornography in Arabic: إِبَاحِيَّة ʔibāḥiyya
pornography in Indonesian: pornografi
pornography in Persian: هرزهنگاری harze-negâri, پورنوگرافی pornogrâfi
pornography in Thai: สื่อลามกอนาจาร sʉ̀ʉ-laa-mók-à-naa-jaan, เรื่องเร้ากามารมณ์, งานลามก
pornography in Vietnamese: khiêu dâm

Examples of pornography in a sentence

The dispute over pornography and censorship has split both liberals and feminists.1994, Susan Easton, The Problem of Pornography: Regulation and the Right to Free Speech, Routledge, page viii:
In Chapter 3 we reviewed the various views about sexual offending, and noted that there is a paucity of research on the role of child pornography in adult sexual interest in children.2004, Ethel Quayle, Max Taylor, Child Pornography: An Internet Crime, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 73:

Synonyms of pornography

7 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of pornography

Forms of pornography

Noun
plural	pornographies
Verb
third-person singular present	pornographies
present participle	pornographying
past participle	pornographied
past	pornographied

Origin of pornography

Borrowed from French pornographie. By surface analysis, porno- + -graphy.

Words formed from pornography

Words that rhyme with pornography

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pornography

What does pornography mean?: Pornography means the explicit literary or visual depiction of sexual subject matter; any display of material of an erotic nature.
What is pornography in Hindi?: Pornography in Hindi is रतिचित्रण (raticitraṇ), अश्लील फ़िल्म (aślīl film). See Pornography meaning in Hindi.
How do you use pornography in a sentence?: The dispute over pornography and censorship has split both liberals and feminists.
What part of speech is pornography?: Pornography can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce pornography?: Pornography is pronounced /pɔːˈnɒɡ.ɹə.fi/ (UK).
What is the plural of pornography?: The plural of pornography is pornographies.

Words near pornography in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: pornography (page history and authors); pornography (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-pornography.ogg.

Cite this entry: “pornography.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pornography. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.