Thesaurus results for MATING

mating 1 of 2

noun

as in sex

sexual union involving penetration of the vagina by the penis if the mare doesn't get pregnant from this mating, you don't have to pay for the second try

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mating

2 of 2

verb

present participle of mate

as in sleeping

to engage in sexual intercourse cats conceive almost every time they mate

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of mating

Noun

First, there was Green Porno, her series of shorts that launched in 2008 on the Sundance Channel and explored some of the more bizarre mating behaviors in nature. — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 6 Aug. 2026 The team recently investigated the mating habits of another species, Leiobunum limbatum, which showed quite a different routine. — Christa Lesté-Lasserre, Scientific American, 3 Aug. 2026 Eagle mating hormones don't kick in until December or January in California. — Amanda Lee Myers, USA Today, 31 July 2026 Each group of lemurs (called a troop) has a core female group that dominates mating, territory, and resource distribution. — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 29 July 2026 Canine transmissible venereal tumor, or CTVT, is a genital cancer that dogs pass to one another during mating. — John Drake, Forbes.com, 27 July 2026 Crickets and cockroaches have much smaller cerci used to sense vibrations in the air, but Stokes explained that earwigs use their cerci for defense, hunting, mating and courtship. — Hannah Smith july 22, Idaho Statesman, 22 July 2026 Game of thrones The team started by taking mating pairs out of a colony away from any queen. — Jacek Krywko, ArsTechnica, 21 July 2026 In four-day periods every year from March to August, legions of small, silver fish called grunion ride the waves ashore for mating rituals, beginning on the nights of the full and new moons. — Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2026

Verb

Eagles typically begin mating at 5 though some have started at the age of 4. — Amanda Lee Myers, USA Today, 31 July 2026 Wild turkeys can be particularly aggressive during mating season. — Elan Abrell, The Conversation, 22 July 2026 The females and males that develop from the pupae end up mating, which leaves the males and females in the wild to continue mating and laying eggs. — Alice Park, Time, 2 July 2026 Turning the biology against the pest So researchers have begun to refine the idea rather than replace it, keeping the once-mating biology at the center but letting the insects spread the effect themselves. — Ethan Stone, AZCentral.com, 17 June 2026 The New World screwworm's larvae eat live flesh and fluids instead of dead material, with females laying their eggs in open wounds and mucous membranes after mating only once in their monthslong lives. — Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 12 June 2026 By mating with sterile flies, the females don't produce more flies and outbreaks can eventually be halted. — ABC News, 8 June 2026 By mating with sterile flies, the females don’t produce more flies and outbreaks can eventually be halted. — Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2026 Darkness is essential to fireflies for mating and increasing their population. — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 6 June 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for mating

Noun

After intercourse, the teenager had snapped photos of her naked body on a futon as evidence.

— Jennifer Smith Richards, ProPublica, 16 July 2026
The two counts of rape Høiby was convicted of did not involve intercourse.

— Gwladys Fouche, USA Today, 15 June 2026

Definition of intercourse

Verb

Some travel essentials are simply non-negotiable, from a blackout eye mask for sleeping on the plane to a personal safety alarm for peace of mind.

— Hayley Domin, Travel + Leisure, 8 Aug. 2026
At the Whitney Biennial, Carmen de Monteflores’s long-unseen shaped canvases of colorful overlapping figures hung alongside her daughter Andrea Fraser’s wax sculptures of sleeping toddlers.

— Carmen Rosenberg-Miller, Artforum, 6 Aug. 2026

Definition of sleeping

Noun

Postwar intellectuals used psychoanalytic ideas in a variety of ways, including to discuss race relations and homosexuality.

— Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 4 Aug. 2026
Rather, the pivotal transactions, graphed like the peaks and valleys of a volatile stock index, are the relations between men and women.

— Cynthia Zarin, Harpers Magazine, 4 Aug. 2026

Definition of relations

Verb

Screen, then securely close rain barrels to help keep mosquitoes from breeding, too.

— Nan Sterman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Aug. 2026
Google applied for an experimental use permit to inject mosquitoes with a specific strain of the Wolbachia pipientis bacteria, which would prevent them from breeding.

— Kimberly Miller, USA Today, 31 July 2026

Definition of breeding

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maths

mating

matins

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“Mating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mating. Accessed 10 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of mating

noun

verb

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