fornication
n. uncountablen. sexual intercourse between people who are not married to each other. It is often used in religious or legal contexts to describe this act as a sin or a crime.
n. sexual intercourse between individuals who are not married to each other. Historically used in legal and ecclesiastical contexts to describe the act as a moral or criminal offense.
The law once punished fornication with heavy fines.
In many historical societies, fornication was considered a serious offense that required public penance or legal intervention.
The shift in social attitudes toward premarital sex has rendered the term fornication largely obsolete in modern secular discourse, though it remains a significant theological concept in certain religious traditions.
From Middle English fornicacioun, from Old French fornicacion, from Latin fornicātiō, from fornix (“brothel”).