Word.ws English Dictionary

sexual relations

sexual relations is the plural of sexual relation.

Meaning of sexual relation

Noun

sexual relation (plural sexual relations)

  1. (idiomatic, in plural) The behavior of a sexual nature between one or more individuals.
    • It would be easy to prove by a long array of facts that the sexual relation is associated in the primitive mind with many serious perils; but the exact nature of the danger apprehended is still obscure.1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 358

Noun

sexual relations pl (plural only)

  1. (idiomatic, plural, plural-only) Sexual activity.
    • There may be an actual distaste for sexual relations for a week or so prior to the period, perhaps as part of a picture of general irritability and vague feelings of discomfort of which some women complain; the name "premenstrual tension" has been applied to this.1950, Louis Portnoy, Jules Saltman, Fertility in Marriage: A Guide for the Childless
    • Our emphasis at this point is on the use of abusive sex in sexual relations as a selling technique. Of course we're not interested in seeing women objectivized in [non-violent] sexual ways for purposes of selling anything, but the immediate protest is to get rid of the violence...The images [on...1976 December 25, Julia London, quotee, “Boycotting Records”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 26, page 2
    Synonyms:
    adult relations

Synonyms of sexual relations

Questions about sexual relations

What does sexual relations mean?
Sexual relations means sexual activity.
What is sexual relations the plural of?
Sexual relations is the plural of sexual relation.
What part of speech is sexual relations?
Sexual relations is a noun.

Words near sexual relations in the dictionary

  1. sexual preference
  2. sexual preferences
  3. sexual reassignment
  4. sexual reassignment surgery
  5. sexual relation
  6. sexual relations
  7. sexual reproduction
  8. sexual revolution
  9. sexual revolutions
  10. sexual selection
  11. sexual selections

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sexual relations (page history and authors); sexual relation (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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Cite this entry: “sexual relations.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sexual_relations. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.