porn

P3O1R1N1
UK/pɔːn/US/pɔɹn/

noun

Pornography.

“car porn”

Very commonFirst used mid-20th c.Scrabble 6

Meanings

nounporn (usually uncountable, plural porns)

plural porns · alternative pron · alternative pr0n · alternative p*rn

  1. informaluncountableusuallyPornography.First known use mid-20th c.

    I just delete the porn before someone else uses the computer.

    2 more examples

    Underground boards also carried handy programs for "scanning" telephone codes and raiding credit card companies, as well as the usual obnoxious galaxy of pirated software, cracked passwords, blue-box schematics, intrusion manuals, anarchy files, porn files, and so forth.

    1992, Bruce Sterling, The Hacker Crackdown […] , Bantam Books, →ISBN

    There're all kinds of ways to interact with our friends over the network: we can play hallucinogenic games, chat, send pictures, code, music, funny articles, metric fuckloads of porn… The interaction is high-quality!

    2004, Cory Doctorow, Eastern Standard Tribe, →OCLC

    Synonyms: erotica, filth, smut

  2. countablein pluralinformalusuallyA pornographic work.

    I remember once watching a porn with some friends of mine […]

    a. 2004, anonymous study participant, quoted in Todd G. Morrison, “‘He was Treating Me Like Trash, and I Was Loving It . . .’: Perspectives on Gay Male Pornography”, in Todd G. Morrison (editor), Eclectic Views on Gay Male Pornography: Pornucopia (co-published as Journal of Homosexuality, Volume 47, Numbers 3/4), Psychology Press (2004), page 179
    2 more examples

    There are anywhere from ten to twelve chapters in the average porn, so that many blank pages can be inserted.

    1982, Florence King, “When Sisterhood Was in Flower”, reprinted in The Florence King Reader, Macmillan (1996), page 181

    — I’ve got it at home. Anyway, there was this gap between the final two porns.

    2000, Dennis Cooper, Period, Grove Press, published 2001, →ISBN, page 33

    Synonyms: adult movie, blue movie, X-rated movie, skin flick

  3. informaluncountableusuallyMaterial, usually visual, presenting something desirable in a sensational manner.

    car porn

    3 more examples

    gun porn

    food porn

    Because software is particularly good at counting, it can be used to create wonderfully compelling visualizations of quantitative data. These can be so compelling that they have even been called “info porn” (see the periodic table of visualizations).

    2011, Michael K. Thomas, “The utility and efficacy of qualitative research software in grounded theory research”, in Vivian B. Martin, Astrid Gynnild, editors, Grounded Theory: The Philosophy, Method, and Work of Barney Glaser, →ISBN, page 140
  4. humorousinformaloftenuncountableusuallyMaterial that provides illicit gratification of an obsessive or unhealthy interest in something.

Synonyms & antonyms

nounPornography.

nounA pornographic work.

More synonyms by meaning

nouncreative activity (writing or pictures or films etc.) of no literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire

Broader
creationcreative activity

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*perh₂-
  2. Proto-Hellenic*pórnē
  3. Ancient Greekπόρνη (pórnē)
  4. Proto-Indo-European*gerbʰ-
  5. Proto-Hellenic*grə́pʰō
  6. Ancient Greekγράφω (gráphō)
  7. Ancient Greekπορνογράφος (pornográphos)
  8. Frenchpornographie
  9. Englishpornographyclip.
  10. Englishporn

Clipping of pornography. First attested in the mid-20th century.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bengali পর্ন
  • পর্ন (pôrn)pornography
Bulgarian порно, порно
  • порно (porno)pornography
  • порно (porno)pornographic work
Chinese Mandarin 色情, 春宮 /春宫
  • 色情 (sèqíng)pornography
  • 春宮 /春宫 (chūngōng)pornography
  • 黃片 /黄片pornography
  • A片 (ēipiàn)pornography
Danish porno
  • pornopornography
Estonian porno, pornograafia
  • pornopornography
  • pornograafiapornography
Finnish porno, pornografia
  • pornopornography
  • pornografiapornography
  • porno-pornographic work
German Pornografie, Porno
  • Pornografiepornography
  • Pornopornographic work
Greek πορνό, πορνογραφία
  • πορνό (pornó)pornography
  • πορνογραφία (pornografía)pornography
  • πορνό (pornó)pornographic work
  • πορνογράφημα (pornográfima)pornographic work
Hindi रतिचित्रण, अश्लील कृति
  • रतिचित्रण (raticitraṇ)pornography
  • अश्लील कृति (ashlīl kṛti)pornographic work
Hungarian pornó
  • pornópornography
Icelandic klám
  • klámpornography
Indonesian porno
  • pornopornography
Italian porno, pornografia
  • pornopornography
  • pornografiapornography
Japanese ポルノ
  • ポルノ (poruno)pornography
Korean 야동
  • 야동 (yadong)pornography
Norwegian Bokmål porno
  • pornopornography
Polish porno
  • pornopornography
Portuguese pornô, pornô
  • pornôpornography
  • pornôpornographic work
Russian по́рно, порну́ха
  • по́рно (pórno)pornography
  • порну́ха (pornúxa)pornography
Spanish porno
  • pornopornography
Swedish porr, porrfilm
  • porrpornography
  • porrfilmpornographic work
Thai หนังโป๊
  • หนังโป๊pornography
Turkish porno, pornografi
  • pornopornography
  • pornografipornography
Yiddish פּאָרן
  • פּאָרן (porn)pornography

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with porn

All rhymes →

Sounds the same

(non-rhotic) pawn

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

porn. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/porn

MLA

“porn.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/porn. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “porn,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/porn.

Source: porn on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.