sometimes offensive
as in vice
the practice of engaging in sexual activities for money prostitution is illegal in most states

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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 prostitution The spa owner was arrested on suspicion of prostitution and keeping a place of prostitution, according to Arapahoe County court records. Lauren Penington, Denver Post, 15 Oct. 2025 Villesca was struggling with substance abuse and turning to prostitution at the time, Moore said. City News Service, Oc Register, 15 Oct. 2025 Combs was sentenced to 50 months in prison on federal prostitution charges earlier this month. Janelle Ash , Larry Fink, FOXNews.com, 13 Oct. 2025 The rapper and businessman has been taking jabs at Combs — whom he's been feuding with since the mid-2000s — since Combs was convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution in July. Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 8 Oct. 2025 See All Example Sentences for prostitution
Recent Examples of Synonyms for prostitution
harlotry
Noun
  • Within the slippery world of harlotry—where class can be transcended and humanity bought—relationships form that defy our historical assumptions about the bounded categories of human experience.
    Sarah Marshall, New Republic, 2 June 2017
  • That's how my job eventually descended into harlotry: through the endless cat-and-mouse game of porntrepreneurs subverting Google's anti-smut policies.
    Lucas Peterson, GQ, 22 May 2017

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Cite this Entry

“Prostitution.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/prostitution. Accessed 20 Oct. 2025.

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