adultery

plural adulteries

1. countableuncountablestrictlySexual intercourse by a married person with someone other than their spouse. See more synonyms at Thesaurus:cuckoldry

   She engaged in adultery because her spouse has a low libido, while hers is very high.

   3 more examples

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

   1651, Thomas Hobbes, De Cive

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

   2009, Garner's Modern American Usage, page 22

   Ironically, the detergent industry-sponsored "soap operas" that are central to modern afternoon television programming promise (mostly) female viewers both relief from drudgery and escape into the dramatic, crisis-filled on-air world of (laundryless) marriages, adulteries, and other relationships.

   2011, Elizabeth Abbott, A History of Marriage

2. broadlycountableuncountablebiblicalLewdness or unchastity of thought as well as act, as forbidden by the sixth/seventh commandment; sinful sexual behavior as a category.

   Thou shalt not commit adultery.

3. countableuncountablebiblicalFaithlessness in religion.

   And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 3:9

4. countableobsoleteuncountableThe fine and penalty formerly imposed for the offence of adultery.
5. countableuncountableecclesiasticalThe intrusion of a person into a bishopric during the life of the bishop.
6. countableuncountablepolitical economyAdulteration; corruption.
7. countableobsoleteuncountableInjury; degradation; ruin.

   […] you might wrest the Caduceus out of my hand, to the adultery and spoil of Nature […]

   1616, Ben Jonson, “Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists”, in Thomas Hodgkin, editor, The Works of Ben Jonson, published 1692, page 378