copulation

English

Etymology

From Middle French copulation, from Latin copulo (“I join, unite, connect”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kɒp.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

copulation (countable and uncountable, plural copulations)

1. (countable) The act of coupling or joining; union; conjunction.
   • 2019, Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen, History and Applications, page 401:

     I quite correctly defined logical copulation by means [of] the copula of inclusion.

2. (uncountable) Sexual procreation between a man and a woman or transfer of the sperm from male to female; usually applied to the mating process in nonhuman animals; coitus; coition.
   • c. 1909, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, Letter VIII:

     Solomon, who was one of the Deity's favorities, had a copulation cabinet composed of seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines.

   • 1979, J.G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company, chapter 30:

     In the dusky streets around me ruled an innocent and open copulation. The entire town mated together, in the leafy bowers that had sprung up among the washing-machines and television sets in the shopping mall, on the settees and divans by the furniture store, in the tropical paradises of the suburban gardens.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:copulation

Derived terms

• autocopulation
• postcopulation
• pseudocopulation
• retrocopulation
• Russian copulation

Translations

the act of joining

Armenian: կապում (hy) (kapum) Bulgarian: свързване (bg) n (svǎrzvane) Finnish: liittäminen (fi), liittyminen (fi), yhdistäminen (fi), yhdistyminen (fi), yhtyminen (fi), koplaus Georgian: შეერთება (šeerteba), გაერთიანება (gaertianeba) German: Verbindung (de) f Hindi: संयोग (hi) m (sãyog) Malay: kopulasi Portuguese: acoplagem f, acoplamento (pt) m, cópula (pt) m, junção (pt) f, ligação (pt) f, união (pt) f Romanian: unire (ro) f, împerechere (ro) f Russian: соедине́ние (ru) n (sojedinénije) Spanish: copulación f, cópula (es) f Tagalog: pagsasama, pag-copulate

the coming together of male and female in sexual intercourse

Arabic: مُضَاجَعَة f (muḍājaʕa), جِمَاع m (jimāʕ), سفاد Armenian: զուգավորում (hy) (zugavorum) Bulgarian: съвкупление n (sǎvkuplenie) Dutch: copulatie (nl) f Esperanto: kopulacio Estonian: paaritumine, kopulatsioon Finnish: parittelu (fi) French: copulation (fr) f Georgian: სქესობრივი აქტი (skesobrivi akṭi), კოპულაცია (ḳoṗulacia), კოიტუსი (ḳoiṭusi), შეწყვილება (šec̣q̇vileba) (for animals) German: Koitus (de) m, Kopulation (de) f, Beischlaf (de) m, Akt (de) m, Begattung (de) f, Paarung (de) f, Kohabitation (de) f Greek: συνουσία (el) f (synousía) Ancient Greek: συνουσίᾱ f (sunousíā), μίξις f (míxis) Hindi: संभोग (hi) m (sambhog) Indonesian: kopulasi (id) Japanese: 性交 (ja) (せいこう, seikō) Kazakh: шағылысу (şağylysu), қатынас жасау (qatynas jasau) Lithuanian: dauginimasis m Malay: kopulasi, persetubuhan (ms), persanggamaan, hubungan jenis, (of animals)​ mengawan​​ Polish: kopulacja (pl) f Portuguese: coito (pt) m, cópula (pt) f Romanian: copulație (ro) f, împerechere (ro) Russian: сноше́ние (ru) n (snošénije), совокупле́ние (ru) n (sovokuplénije), копуля́ция (ru) f (kopuljácija), ко́итус (ru) m (kóitus) Slovak: kopulácia, párenie Spanish: coito (es) m, copulación f, cópula (es) f Swedish: kopulation (sv) c Tagalog: pagtatalik Telugu: రతి (te) (rati) Vietnamese: giao phối (vi) Volapük: koit (vo)

Anagrams

• poculation

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cōpulātiōnem. By surface analysis, copuler +‎ -ation.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.py.la.sjɔ̃/

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: co‧pu‧la‧tion

Noun

copulation f (plural copulations)

1. copulation

Related terms

• copulateur
• copulatif
• copuler

Further reading

• “copulation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.