orgasm

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Ancient Greek ὀργή (orgḗ)

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti

Ancient Greek -άω (-áō)

Ancient Greek ὀργάω (orgáō)

Ancient Greek -σμός (-smós)

Ancient Greek ὀργασμός (orgasmós)bor.

French orgasmeder.

▲

Ancient Greek ὀργασμός (orgasmós)bor.

Latin orgasmusder.

English orgasm

From French orgasme or New Latin orgasmus, from Ancient Greek ὀργασμός (orgasmós, “excitement, swelling”), from ὀργάω (orgáō, “to swell with moisture”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɔː.ɡæ.zəm/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈoɹ.ɡæ.zəm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æzəm
• Hyphenation: or‧gasm

Noun

orgasm (countable and uncountable, plural orgasms)

1. (obsolete) A spasm or sudden contraction. [17th–19th c.]
   • 1794, Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia:

     Hence simple fevers are of two kinds; first, the febris irritativa, or fever with strong pulse, which consists of a previous torpor of the heart, arteries, and capillaries, and a succeeding orgasm of those vessels.

2. A rush of sexual excitement; now specifically, the climax or peak of sexual pleasure, which occurs during sexual activity and which in males may include ejaculation and in females vaginal contractions. [from 18th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:orgasm

   anally-induced orgasm;   attain orgasm;   be close to orgasm

   bring oneself to orgasm;   come to orgasm;   control one's orgasm

   cumless orgasm;   cry of orgasm;   delay one's orgasm

   deny someone an orgasm;   give someone and orgasm;   have an orgasm

   have repeated orgasm;   female orgasm;   intense orgasm

   intercourse resulting in orgasm by both parties

   male orgasm;   moan of orgasm;   mutual orgasm

   screaming orgasm;   unpleasurable orgasm

   • 1922, Frank Harris, “X”, in My Life and Loves:

     Since then I have read lascivious books in halt a dozen languages and they all represent women coming to an orgasm in the act, as men do, followed by a period of content; which only shows that the books are all written by men and ignorant, insensitive men at that. The truth is hardly one married woman in a thousand is ever brought to her highest pitch of feeling: usually, just when she begins to feel, her husband goes to sleep.

   • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Penguin 2004 (Avignon Quintet), page 668:

     Never had I experienced such an immense slow orgasm – its ripples ran like the tributaries of the Nile throughout the whole nervous system.

   • 2007 September 12, Zoe Margolis, The Guardian:

     There does not have to be romance involved with sexual pleasure: some of us just like orgasms for the hell of it.

3. A creamy white alcoholic cocktail containing amaretto, Irish cream, and coffee liqueur.

Derived terms

• airgasm
• bring to orgasm
• dry orgasm
• fauxgasm
• -gasm
• Gorbasm
• head orgasm
• multiorgasm
• multiorgasmic
• multiorgasmically
• multiple orgasm
• orgasmatron
• orgasm balls
• orgasm gap
• orgasmic
• orgasmically
• orgasmless
• orgasmlike
• orgasm shot
• ruined orgasm
• screaming orgasm
• skin orgasm
• snoregasm
• superorgasm
• yogasm

Related terms

• orgastic

Translations

climax or peak of sexual pleasure

• Afrikaans: orgasme
• Albanian: orgazmë f
• Arabic: نَشْوَة f (našwa), هِزَّة اَلْجِمَاع f (hizzat al-jimāʕ)
• Armenian: օրգազմ (hy) (ōrgazm)
• Asturian: orgasmu m
• Azerbaijani: orqazm
• Basque: orgasmo (eu)
• Belarusian: арга́зм m (arházm)
• Bengali: রাগমোচন (bn) (ragmōcon)
• Bulgarian: орга́зъм m (orgázăm)
• Catalan: orgasme (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 高潮 (zh) (gāocháo)

• Chuvash: каҫӑху (kaś̬ăh̬u)
• Czech: orgasmus (cs) m
• Danish: orgasme c
• Dutch: orgasme (nl) m, klaarkomen (nl) n (vulgar)
• Esperanto: orgasmo (eo)
• Estonian: orgasm (et)
• Faroese: orgasma f
• Finnish: orgasmi (fi)
• French: orgasme (fr) m
• Galician: orgasmo (gl) m
• Georgian: ორგაზმი (orgazmi)
• German: Orgasmus (de) m, Höhepunkt (de) m, Klimax (de) f
• Greek: οργασμός (el) m (orgasmós)

  Ancient Greek: ὀργασμός m (orgasmós)

• Hebrew: אוֹרְגַּזְמָה (he) f (orgázma), אֲבִיּוֹנָה (he) f (aviyoná)
• Hindi: चरमसुख m (caramsukh)
• Hungarian: orgazmus (hu)
• Icelandic: fullnæging (is) f
• Indonesian: orgasme (id)
• Irish: súnás m
• Italian: orgasmo (it) m
• Japanese: オーガズム (ja) (ōgazumu), オルガスムス (ja) (orugasumusu), アクメ (ja) (akume), イき (iki) (slang)
• Korean: 오르가슴 (oreugaseum)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: orgazm (ku)

• Latin: patrātiō m, orgasmus m
• Latvian: orgazmas
• Lithuanian: orgazmas m
• Low German: Orgasmus, Klimax, Hööchdpunkt, Kloorkamen
• Macedonian: орга́зам (orgázam)
• Malay: syahwat
• Malayalam: രതിമൂർച്ഛ (ratimūṟccha)
• Māori: tokomauri, rekareka
• Marathi: कामसंवेग m (kāmsauveg), चरमोत्कर्ष f (carmotkarṣa), आसंवेग m (āsauveg), उत्ताप f (uttāp), संभोगाउत्कर्ष m (sambhogāutkarṣa), समागमसंवेग m (samāgamsauveg)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: orgasme (no) m, utløsning m

  Nynorsk: orgasme m

• Persian: اوج لذت جنسی (owj-e lezzat-e jensi), ارگاسم (fa) (orgâsm)
• Polish: orgazm (pl) m
• Portuguese: orgasmo (pt) m
• Romanian: orgasm (ro) n
• Russian: орга́зм (ru) m (orgázm)
• Samogitian: uorgazmos m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: оргазам m

  Latin: orgazam (sh) m

• Sicilian: urgàsimu m
• Slovak: orgazmus (sk) m
• Slovene: orgazem (sl) m
• Spanish: orgasmo (es) m
• Swedish: orgasm (sv) c
• Tagalog: sukdulan (tl), kasukdulan
• Tamil: புணர்ச்சிப் பரவசநிலை (puṇarccip paravacanilai), பாலின்ப உச்சி (pāliṉpa ucci)
• Telugu: భావప్రాప్తి (te) (bhāvaprāpti)
• Thai: จุดสุดยอดทางเพศ (jùt-sùt-yɔ̂ɔt-taang-pêet)
• Turkish: orgazm (tr)
• Ukrainian: орга́зм m (orházm)
• Vietnamese: cực khoái
• Volapük: sömitamapün (vo)
• Welsh: orgasm
• Yiddish: אָרגאַזם (orgazm)

Verb

orgasm (third-person singular simple present orgasms, present participle orgasming, simple past and past participle orgasmed)

1. (intransitive) To have an orgasm.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:orgasm

Translations

to have an orgasm

• Dutch: klaarkomen (nl), een orgasme hebben
• Esperanto: orgasmi
• Finnish: saada orgasmi
• French: jouir (fr), orgasmer (fr)
• Greek: έρχομαι σε οργασμό (érchomai se orgasmó)
• Hungarian: elélvez (hu)
• Japanese: いく (ja) (iku)
• Korean: 가다 (ko) (gada)
• Latin: patrō
• Māori: tokomauri
• Portuguese: atingir o orgasmo, gozar (pt) (Brazil, informal)
• Russian: оргазми́ровать (ru) impf or pf (orgazmírovatʹ), испы́тывать орга́зм impf (ispýtyvatʹ orgázm), испыта́ть орга́зм pf (ispytátʹ orgázm)
• Spanish: tener un orgasmo, llegar al orgasmo, orgasmear
• Swedish: orgasmera, komma (sv)
• Ukrainian: відчува́ти орга́зм impf (vidčuváty orházm), відчу́ти орга́зм pf (vidčúty orházm)

Anagrams

• Magros, Morgas, gromas, margos, mogras

Estonian

Noun

orgasm (genitive orgasmi, partitive orgasmi)

1. orgasm

Declension

Declension of orgasm (ÕS type 22e/riik, length gradation)
		singular	plural
nominative		orgasm	orgasmid
accusative	nom.
	gen.	orgasmi
genitive			orgasmide
partitive		orgasmi	orgasme orgasmisid
illative		orgasmi orgasmisse	orgasmidesse orgasmesse
inessive		orgasmis	orgasmides orgasmes
elative		orgasmist	orgasmidest orgasmest
allative		orgasmile	orgasmidele orgasmele
adessive		orgasmil	orgasmidel orgasmel
ablative		orgasmilt	orgasmidelt orgasmelt
translative		orgasmiks	orgasmideks orgasmeks
terminative		orgasmini	orgasmideni
essive		orgasmina	orgasmidena
abessive		orgasmita	orgasmideta
comitative		orgasmiga	orgasmidega

Romanian

Etymology

Etymology tree

Ancient Greek ὀργή (orgḗ)

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti

Ancient Greek -άω (-áō)

Ancient Greek ὀργάω (orgáō)

Ancient Greek -σμός (-smós)

Ancient Greek ὀργασμός (orgasmós)bor.

French orgasmebor.

Romanian orgasm

Borrowed from French orgasme.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [orˈɡasm]

Noun

orgasm n (plural orgasme)

1. orgasm

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	orgasm	orgasmul	orgasme	orgasmele
genitive-dative	orgasm	orgasmului	orgasme	orgasmelor
vocative	orgasmule		orgasmelor

Related terms

• orgasmic
• orgastic

Swedish

Etymology

From French orgasme, from Ancient Greek ὀργασμός (orgasmós, “orgasm”).

Noun

orgasm c

1. orgasm

   Han fick orgasm i duschen.

   He had an orgasm in the shower.

Declension

Declension of orgasm

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	orgasm	orgasms
	definite	orgasmen	orgasmens
plural	indefinite	orgasmer	orgasmers
	definite	orgasmerna	orgasmernas

Derived terms

• fontänorgasm

Related terms

• orgasmisk (“orgasmic”)

See also

• utlösning

References

• “orgasm”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “orgasm”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “orgasm”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)

Welsh

Etymology

Derived from Ancient Greek ὀργασμός (orgasmós, “excitement, swelling”), likely through English.

Noun

orgasm m (plural orgasmau)

1. orgasm

   Synonym: gwŷn

Mutation

Mutated forms of orgasm

radical	soft	nasal	h-prothesis
orgasm	unchanged	unchanged	horgasm

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• D. G. Lewis, N. Lewis, editors (2005–present), “orgasm”, in Gweiadur: the Welsh–English Dictionary, Gwerin
• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke, et al., editors (1950–present), “orgasm”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies