copulation

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Female black widow spiders eat males following copulation.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

This "forced extra-pair copulation," as it's known, is a fairly rare strategy across birds as a whole.

From Salon • Jul. 25, 2021

The difficulty of securing enough calories to fabricate an ootheca may help explain why females of some mantid species famously engage in sexual cannibalism — consuming their mates after, or even during, copulation.

From New York Times • Sep. 22, 2017

Competition for females is tough among these polygynous birds, and those who settle down in a single spot had little chance of copulation.

From The Guardian • Jan. 9, 2017

In the laboratory, male gypsy moths have attempted copulation with chips of wood, vermiculite, and other small, inanimate objects, so long as they were suitably impregnated with gyplure.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson