mating

mating — verb

1. when two animals come together to have sex so that the female can become pregnan

1.verbtransitive / intransitiveB2
Definition

when two animals come together to have sex so that the female can become pregnant and produce babies; when a person pairs animals so that this happens, such as on a farm or in a zoo.

Example

The two pandas at Taipei Zoo began mating in early March.

intransitive: [animal]s mate

The farmer decided to mate his best sheep with a champion ram from a neighbouring farm.

transitive: mate [animal] with [animal]

Common collocations
  • mate with [another animal]
  • mate in [season/month]
  • mate for life
  • begin mating
  • stop mating
Synonyms
  • breed

    broader term; can mean reproduce generally or keep animals for reproduction

  • copulate

    more formal and clinical; used mainly in scientific writing

  • pair

    focuses on the forming of a couple, not necessarily the sex act

Grammar Patterns

mate (intransitive)

mate [animal] with [animal] (transitive)

Usage Note

Primarily used of animals and other non-human living things. Describing humans as 'mating' sounds clinical or deliberately dehumanising; for people, use 'have sex' or the more formal 'engage in sexual intercourse'. In transitive use (when a person causes animals to reproduce), the object is always an animal species.

Common Mistakes

The couple mated on their wedding night.
The couple spent their wedding night together.
'mate' describes animal reproduction; for humans it sounds unnatural or offensive.
The dogs mated with each other in the park.
The dogs mated in the park.
'with each other' is redundant because 'mate' already implies two animals.
She mated the dog.
She mated her dog with a pedigree poodle from the next town.
transitive use needs the partner animal specified with 'with'.

mating — noun

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

'Breed' is the broadest of the group — it covers the entire cycle from mating through raising young, and is also used for the human activity of keeping animals for reproduction ('He breeds Labrador retrievers'). 'Copulate' is the most clinical term, used almost exclusively in formal scientific writing about the physical sex act itself; you would not use it in a children's book about farm animals. 'Pair' shifts focus from the sex act to the formation of a bonded couple — many birds pair for a season or for life, but 'pairing' may or may not lead to mating. 'Reproduce' covers the biological outcome (producing offspring) regardless of the mechanism. Example: 'These penguins pair in October, mate in November, and successfully reproduce every year.'

breed ↗copulatepair ↗reproduce ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • mating for life
  • the mating of [species]
  • during mating

Prepositions

Etymology

Middle Low GermanMiddle EnglishEnglish

The word 'mating' comes from the verb 'mate', which entered English around the 1300s from Middle Low German 'mate' meaning 'companion, table-sharer'. The sense of 'joining in marriage' appeared in the 1400s, and by the 1500s the term had extended to the pairing of animals for reproduction. The '-ing' suffix turns the verb into a noun or present participle, giving 'mating' its modern sense of 'the act of animals coming together to produce young'.