fuck
Word family
Synonym discussion
Sense: verb/1
All four alternatives mean the same physical act but carry vastly different levels of offensiveness. 'Screw' is still vulgar — you would not use it in a job interview — but it is significantly less shocking than 'fuck' and can even sound humorous in certain contexts ('They were screwing like teenagers'). 'Shag' is primarily British slang; it has a slightly playful, retro tone and is much less taboo in the UK than 'fuck' is anywhere. 'Sleep with' and 'have sex with' are the neutral, safe choices for any register. 'Sleep with' implies a degree of intimacy or relationship ('She slept with her boss'), while 'have sex with' is the most clinical and objective ('The study asked participants how often they had sex'). If you are a learner unsure which word to use, always choose 'have sex with' — it is appropriate everywhere and will never cause offence.
Common collocations
Etymology
The word 'fuck' comes from a Proto-Germanic root *fuk(k)- meaning 'to strike' or 'to copulate', first appearing in English records around the 15th century. It may be related to Old Dutch 'fokken' (to thrust, to copulate) and German 'ficken' (to strike or copulate). For centuries it was considered unprintable — the Oxford English Dictionary's first edition (1933) excluded it entirely, and its first appearance in a major English novel was D.H. Lawrence's 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' (1928), which led to an obscenity trial. The 1960s and 1970s saw the word gradually enter mainstream printed media, and today it is the most versatile and forceful swear word in the language, functioning as verb, noun, exclamation, intensifier, and word-internal infix.