| Law Encyclopedia: Carnal Knowledge |
Copulation; the act of a man having sexual relations with a woman.
Penetration is an essential element of sexual intercourse, and there is carnal knowledge if even the slightest penetration of the female by the male organ takes place. It is not required that the hymen be ruptured or the vagina entered.
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| WordNet: carnal knowledge |
The noun has one meaning:
Meaning #1:
the act of sexual procreation between a man and a woman; the man's penis is inserted into the woman's vagina and excited until orgasm and ejaculation occur
Synonyms: sexual intercourse, intercourse, sex act, copulation, coitus, coition, sexual congress, congress, sexual relation, relation
| Wikipedia: Carnal knowledge |
Carnal knowledge is an archaic or legal euphemism for sexual intercourse.
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The word "carnal" derives from Latin carnalis, meaning "fleshly", and the word "knowledge" in this phrase derives from the "Biblical sense" of "to know", which means "to have sexual intercourse with". [1][2][3](See Genesis 19:4-8 (KJV) compared with 19:4-8 (NIV).)
In criminal law, the phrase has had different meanings at different times and in different jurisdictions. While commonly a mere euphemism for sexual intercourse (not necessarily unlawful), different jurisdictions have defined carnal knowledge as a specific sex act such as contact between a penis and vagina, some laws elaborating this to include even "slight penile penetration of female genitalia". The definition sometimes includes a set of sex acts that include sodomy and/or oral sex, while some statutes specifically exclude such acts.
Carnal knowledge has also sometimes meant sexual intercourse outside of marriage, and sometimes refers to sex with someone under the age of consent. The phrase is often found in this sense in modern legal usage, being equivalent to statutory rape in some jurisdictions, as the term "rape" implies lack of consent, and consent is considered irrelevant to such cases.
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Copyrights:
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 | Law Encyclopedia. West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Copyright © 1998 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Carnal knowledge". Read more |
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