fornication Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun voluntary sexual intercourse between persons not married to each other
  2. noun extramarital sex that willfully and maliciously interferes with marriage relations
    criminal conversation; adultery.
    • adultery is often cited as grounds for divorce

WordNet

For`ni*ca"tion noun
Etymology
F. fornication, L. fornicatio.
Definitions
  1. Unlawful sexual intercourse on the part of an unmarried person; the act of such illicit sexual intercourse between a man and a woman as does not by law amount to adultery. ✍ In England, the offense, though cognizable in the ecclesiastical courts, was not at common law subject to secular prosecution. In the United States it is indictable in some States at common law, in others only by statute. Whartyon.
  2. (Script.) (a) Adultery. (b) Incest. (c) Idolatry.

Webster 1913