Category: Sexual Behaviors & Practices

Promiscuous Sex: Meaning, Multiple Partners, Stigma, and Safer Sex

Promiscuous sex is a judgment-laden term for sex involving multiple or frequently changing partners, with meanings shaped by culture and values.

Swing may mean participating in consensual partner-swapping or group sexual activity, although the word also has many ordinary nonsexual meanings.

Kiss means to touch someone or something with the lips and may express affection, greeting, romance, sexual attraction, comfort, or respect.

Neck usually names a body part, but as dated slang it means to kiss and embrace someone passionately, often without intercourse.

Make out means to kiss and touch someone passionately, usually without necessarily having sexual intercourse.

Make love is a romantic expression for engaging in sexual activity with affection, tenderness, or emotional closeness.

Jazz primarily means a musical tradition, but older American slang also used the word for sexual intercourse or sexual activity.

Hump means to thrust or rub the body sexually against a person or object, but it may also describe animal mounting or a rounded raised shape.

Have sex means to engage in sexual activity and may include intercourse, oral sex, touching, or other mutually agreed intimate acts.

Have it off is informal British slang for having sex and may suggest a casual encounter, secret sexual relationship, or affair.