promiscuous
adjective
Norman Cousins
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The Multiple Meanings of Promiscuous
Promiscuous (from Latin promiscuus “without distinction, taken from every different type”) has a range of meanings in English. The oldest of these is “composed of all sorts of persons and things” (as in “a promiscuous array of books” or “the promiscuous company at the tavern”). This meaning suggests a random assortment, not necessarily with negative implications.
Within the last few hundred years, promiscuous has added the usually negatively-tinged meanings “indiscriminate” (“promiscuous destruction by bombing”), “casual or careless” (“the president’s promiscuous dishonesty”), and of course, “not restricted to one sexual partner.”
Does this mean that the word itself is promiscuous? Not at all. It is not uncommon for English words to display this polysemous (“having multiple meanings”) character, and promiscuous is actually on the tidy end of the spectrum, as far as these things go. Some English words have dozens of meanings.
Synonyms
Examples of promiscuous in a Sentence
Richard K. Betts, Foreign Affairs, 10 Mar. 2022
Moore portrayed the promiscuous older sister for six episodes, wrapping her run at the end of the show's sixth season in 2004.
—EW.com, 24 July 2024
However, the latter’s impending second wedding has led their old neighbors — promiscuous recording artist Alice (Mullally) and cannabis-cultivating grandma Kitty (Ralph) — to concoct a ploy to reunite them.
—Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 24 July 2024
There would follow promiscuous interventions to strengthen the public sector’s dominance of what would become only a semiprivate sector.
—George F. Will, Washington Post, 19 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for promiscuous 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'promiscuous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near promiscuous
Cite this Entry
“Promiscuous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/promiscuous. Accessed 19 Aug. 2024.
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