Carnal knowledge
archaic euphemism for sexual intercourse
Carnal knowledge is an archaic or legal euphemism for sexual intercourse. In modern statutes, the term "sexual penetration" is widely used, though with various definitions.
The term derives from carnal, meaning "of the flesh", and the Biblical usage of the verb know/knew, a euphemism for sexual conduct.
Biblical source
One example of this usage is in the first part of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, which describes how Adam and Eve conceived their first child:
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten a man with [the help of] Jehovah.
Also in Genesis is Lot's plea to the people of Sodom to whom he offered his virgin daughters, in place of his guests:
And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men that came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
And Lot went out unto them to the door, and shut the door after him. And he said, I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters that have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing, forasmuch as they are come under the shadow of my roof.
Some translations translate the Hebrew expression more explicitly, undoing the euphemism for clarity to modern readers; for example, the New International Version translates the Hebrew phrase literally meaning "to know" as "to make love to" in Genesis 4:1, and as "to have sex with" in Genesis 19.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Carnal knowledge” as archaic euphemism for sexual intercourse. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as archaic euphemism for sexual intercourse. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5043780. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Carnal knowledge” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.