Incest

//ˈɪn.sɛst// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Sexual relations between close relatives, especially immediate family members and sometimes first cousins, usually considered taboo. uncountable, usually

    "Genetic problems caused by incest are thought to have plagued many royal families in the Middle Ages."

  2. 2
    sexual intercourse between persons too closely related to marry (as between a parent and a child) wordnet
  3. 3
    Romantic relationships between close relatives, also widely taboo. broadly, uncountable, usually
Verb
  1. 1
    To engage in incestuous sexual activities. ambitransitive

    "I do not want anyone to feel that my lesbianism is a result of being incested."

Synonyms

All synonyms
active algolagniaadulteryalgolagniaalgolagnyamphierotismautoeroticism

Example

More examples

"Imagine, for the sake of argument, a tribal group in which mother-son incest was countenanced."

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin incestus. Displaced Old English mǣġhǣmed (literally “relative-sex”). Doublet of inchaste.

Related phrases

anti-incestpro-incestspiritual inceststep-incestfirst cousinimmediate familysexual intercoursespiritual incest

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.