copulation

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.

Anagrams

• poculation

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.py.la.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

copulation f (plural copulations)

1. copulation

Further reading

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