Fornication meaning

fôrnĭ-kāshən
Voluntary sexual intercourse between persons not married to each other.
noun
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Sexual intercourse between people who are not married to each other, especially when considered as a sin.
noun
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Consensual sex between two individuals not married to one another.
noun
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Sexual intercourse, especially on the part of an unmarried person.
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(law) The act of such illicit sexual intercourse between a man and a woman which does not by law amount to adultery.

1604 I am the sister of one Claudio, Condemn'd upon the act of fornication To lose his head; condemn'd by Angelo — Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act 5, Scene 1

1611 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. — Galatians 5:19-21 KJV.

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Fornication is defined as sexual intercourse between unmarried partners.

An example of fornication is sexual intercourse between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman.

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Origin of fornication

  • From Old French fornicacion, from Latin fornicatio, from fornix (“brothel”).

    From Wiktionary

Fornication Sentence Examples

  • Three groups of sins, classified as (I) idolatry, which included apostasy, (2) adultery or fornication, and (3) murder, were held to exclude the guilty person from sharing in the eucharist until death, that is to say, if he had committed the sin after baptism.

  • It is good for a man not to touch a woman; a man's relations with his own wife are merely a means of fornication, and marriage and concubinage are indistinguishable as against the kingdom of God, in which there is no marrying or giving in marriage.

  • Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

  • When He uses the word ' fornication ' He always uses it in a narrow sense.

  • No to avoid fornication every man is to have his own wife (7:2 ).

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Related articles

Words near fornication in the Dictionary