Sexual intercourse
intimate social activity typically involving the insertion of the erect male penis into another person's bodily orifice
Sex, more formally known as sexual intercourse, coitus, or copulation, is an intimate social activity typically involving the insertion of the erect male penis inside the female vagina and followed by thrusting motions for erotic pleasure, biological reproduction, or both. This specific type of sex is also known as vaginal intercourse (or vaginal sex). However, other forms of penetrative sexual intercourse also exist, including anal sex (penetration of the anus by the penis), oral sex (penetration of the mouth by the penis or oral contact with or penetration of the female genitalia), fingering (sexual penetration by the fingers) and penetration by use of a dildo (especially a strap-on dildo), and vibrators. The desire for these activities is grounded in natural human instinct and they involve physical intimacy between two or more people, usually enacted by humans solely for physical-emotional pleasure, sometimes contributing to human bonding.
There are different views on what constitutes sexual intercourse or other sexual activity, which can impact views of sexual health. Although sexual intercourse, particularly the term coitus, generally denotes penile–vaginal penetration and the possibility of creating offspring, it also commonly denotes penetrative oral sex and penile–anal sex, especially the latter. It usually encompasses any sexual penetration (a term especially common in statutory law), while non-penetrative sex has been labeled outercourse, but non-penetrative sex may also be considered sexual intercourse by some people or in some less-common definitions. Because people can be at risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections during these activities, safer sex practices are recommended by health professionals to reduce transmission risk.
Various jurisdictions place restrictions on certain sexual acts, such as adultery, incest, sexual activity with minors, prostitution, rape, zoophilia, sodomy, premarital sex and extramarital sex. Religious beliefs also play a role in personal decisions about sexual intercourse or other sexual activity, such as decisions about virginity, or legal and public policy matters.
The public source identifies “Sexual intercourse” as intimate social activity typically involving the insertion of the erect male penis into another person's bodily orifice. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Sexual, intercourse and intimate.
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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 Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5873. The Library of Congress control number is sh85120739. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. 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 “Sexual intercourse” 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.