different between adult vs adultery

English

Etymology

From French adulte, Latin adultus (“grown up”), perfect passive participle of adolesc? (“I grow up”). Compare adolescent.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian, Canada) IPA^(key): /?æd.?lt/, /?æd.?lt/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /??d?lt/, /?æd.?lt/
• Rhymes: -?lt

Noun

adult (plural adults)

1. A fully grown human or animal.
2. A person who has reached the legal age of majority.

Synonyms

• (fully grown human or animal): grown up; see also Thesaurus:adult

Derived terms

• adultly
• adultness

Translations

Adjective

adult (comparative more adult, superlative most adult)

1. Fully grown.

   an adult human, animal, or plant
2. Intended for or restricted to adults rather than children.

   adult clothes

   • 1973, Marshall Kaplan, Gans, and Kahn, Children and the urban environment (page 21)

     In May 1967 the WGBH Education Division submitted an initial proposal to HUD for a series of four adult television documentaries on conservation in an urban environment.

3. Containing material of an explicit sexual nature; of, or pertaining to, pornography.

   an adult movie

   This program contains adult content. Parental discretion is advised.

4. Vulgar or profane.

Synonyms

• (fully grown): big, fully grown, grown up; see also Thesaurus:full-grown
• (intended for adults): grown up; see also Thesaurus:adultlike or Thesaurus:for adults
• (containing explicit sexual material): pornographic, X-rated, XXX, XXXX; see also Thesaurus:pornographic
• (vulgar): blue, indecent, obscene, salacious; see also Thesaurus:obscene

Related terms

• adolescent
• adulthood

Translations

Verb

adult (third-person singular simple present adults, present participle adulting, simple past and past participle adulted)

1. (intransitive, informal) To behave like an adult.
3. (nonstandard, rare) To (cause to) be or become an adult.
   • 1974, Occasional Papers (Syracuse University), issues 42-46, page 5:

     Womanhood was achieved at twenty-one, when the female was "adulted"; manhood was fully achieved at twenty-five, […]

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:adult.

Further reading

• adult in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• adult in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• talud

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin adultus.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /??dult/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /??dul/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /a?dult/

Adjective

adult (feminine adulta, masculine plural adults, feminine plural adultes)

1. adult (fully grown)

Derived terms

• adultesa

Noun

adult m (plural adults, feminine adulta)

1. adult (fully grown person)

Further reading

• “adult” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

German

Pronunciation

Adjective

adult (not comparable)

1. (medicine) adult

Declension

See also

• erwachsen
• Erwachsener, Erwachsene

Romanian

Etymology

From French adulte, Latin adultus. See above.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a?dult/

Adjective

adult m or n (feminine singular adult?, masculine plural adul?i, feminine and neuter plural adulte)

1. adult

Declension

Noun

adult m (plural adul?i, feminine equivalent adult?)

1. adult

Declension

English

Etymology

From the Old French scholarly form adultere (“violation of conjugal faith”) (in Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons, 12c.), from Latin adulterium, from adulter. Replaced the older form avoutrie, from the popular Old French forms avouterie or aoulterie. Compare French adultère (“adultery”). Displaced Old English ?wbry?e. Not related to adult.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??d?lt??i/

Noun

adultery (countable and uncountable, plural adulteries)

1. Sexual intercourse by a married person with someone other than their spouse.
   • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, De Cive

     So also that copulation which in one City is Matrimony, in another will be judged Adultery.

   • 2009 Garner's Modern American Usage page 22

     Under modern statutory law, some courts hold that the unmarried participant isn't guilty of adultery (that only the married participant is)

2. (biblical) Lewdness or unchastity of thought as well as act, as forbidden by the seventh commandment.
3. (biblical) Faithlessness in religion.
4. (obsolete) The fine and penalty formerly imposed for the offence of adultery.
5. (ecclesiastical) The intrusion of a person into a bishopric during the life of the bishop.
6. (political economy) Adulteration; corruption.
7. (obsolete) Injury; degradation; ruin.

Synonyms

• advowtry (obsolete)

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• adultery in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• adultery in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.