bestiality

IPA/ˌbestiˈæləti/
KK[bɛstʃˈælɪti]IPA/ˌbestʃiˈæləti/

bestiality — noun

1. the act of a person having sexual contact with an animal, treated in most countr

1.nounC2
Definition

the act of a person having sexual contact with an animal, treated in most countries as a serious crime against the animal.

Example

Under Taiwan's animal protection law, bestiality is punishable by a fine and a prison term.

legal context: bestiality is punishable by

The veterinarian reported clear signs of bestiality after examining the injured farm dog.

collocation: signs of bestiality

Common collocations
  • convicted of bestiality
  • prosecuted for bestiality
  • law against bestiality
  • ban on bestiality
Synonyms
  • zoophilia

    clinical term for sexual attraction to animals; describes the desire, while bestiality describes the act

  • zoosexuality

    rare academic term, sometimes used by activists; bestiality is the standard legal label

Grammar Patterns

bestiality is illegal in [country]

convicted of bestiality

Usage Note

Almost always uncountable and used in legal, news, or academic contexts. Subject of the surrounding sentence is typically a law, statute, charge, or investigator — rarely a named individual. Avoid this word in casual speech.

Common Mistakes

He committed a bestiality.
He committed bestiality.
the noun is uncountable; do not use the article 'a' or a plural.
The farmer was charged with bestiality of his goat.
The farmer was charged with bestiality involving his goat.
use 'involving' or 'with' + animal, not 'of'.

2. savage, low conduct in a person — the kind of cruelty or coarse behaviour we exp

2.nounC2
Definition

savage, low conduct in a person — the kind of cruelty or coarse behaviour we expect from a wild animal rather than a human being.

Example

Witnesses described the bestiality of the soldiers who burned the village to the ground.

pattern: the bestiality of + group/event

Tolstoy's late stories expose the bestiality of the Russian gentry beneath their polite parlour conversations.

Common collocations
  • the bestiality of war
  • sheer bestiality
  • acts of bestiality
  • human bestiality
Synonyms
  • savagery

    common synonym; less formal and more widely usable than bestiality

  • barbarity

    stresses the uncivilised nature of the act; often used of war or torture

  • brutality

    the most neutral of the four; focuses on physical violence rather than sub-human nature

Antonyms
  • humanity

    the kind, civilised qualities we hope to see in people

  • civility

    polite, controlled conduct — the opposite tone from bestiality

Grammar Patterns

the bestiality of [war/regime/attack]

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 1: this sense is metaphorical and refers to cruel conduct, not sexual acts. Almost always appears in literary, historical, or journalistic writing about war crimes, violence, or moral collapse, and almost always with the article 'the' followed by a description.

Common Mistakes

He was angry and showed a bestiality.
He was angry and showed real bestiality.
uncountable; do not use 'a'.
The boys' fight in the playground was pure bestiality.
The boys' fight in the playground was just rough play.
the word is far too strong for everyday rudeness or scuffles; reserve it for extreme cruelty.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/2

All four words describe extreme cruelty, but they pick out different shades. 'Brutality' is the most neutral and the most common: it focuses on rough physical violence, as in 'police brutality'. 'Savagery' adds a sense of wildness and loss of control, often used for attacks or warfare. 'Barbarity' stresses how uncivilised an act is, and is the standard word for atrocities reported in news and history books. 'Bestiality' is the strongest and rarest of the four; it suggests the person has sunk below the human level and is acting like a beast. Use 'brutality' for everyday news ('the brutality of the assault'), 'barbarity' for war crimes, and reserve 'bestiality' for literary or moral writing where the writer wants to shock the reader.

bestiality ↗savagery ↗barbarity ↗brutality ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • accused of bestiality
  • law against bestiality
  • acts of bestiality
  • the bestiality of war

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

Borrowed into late Middle English from Old French 'bestialité', built on Latin 'bestialis' ('like a beast') and 'bestia' ('animal, beast'). The original meaning was simply 'the nature of a beast' — that is, the qualities that make an animal not a human. From the late 1500s, English writers stretched the word in two directions: a metaphorical sense for cruel or coarse human behaviour, and a literal sense for sexual contact between a person and an animal. Today the literal sense dominates in legal English, while the older metaphorical sense survives in formal and literary writing.