Many cognates in other languages, such as French sodomie (verb sodomiser), Spanish sodomía (verb sodomizar), and Portuguese sodomia (verb sodomizar), are used exclusively for penetrative anal sex, at least since the early 19th century. (The word 'sod' also has a meaning of '(clump of) earth' with an unrelated etymology, in which sense it is rare but not offensive.) Sod is used as slang in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth and is considered mildly offensive. It is a general-purpose insult term for anyone the speaker dislikes without specific reference to their sexual behaviour. The word sod, a noun or verb (to 'sod off') used as an insult, is derived from sodomite. These laws in the United States have been challenged and have sometimes been found unconstitutional or been replaced with different legislation. Laws prohibiting sodomy were seen frequently in past Jewish, Christian, and Islamic civilizations, but the term has little modern usage outside Africa, Asia, and the United States. In current usage, the term is particularly used in law. Then the angels strike the Sodomites blind, 'so that they wearied themselves to find the door'. Lot protests that the messengers are his guests and offers the Sodomites his virgin daughters instead, but then they threaten to 'do worse' with Lot than they would with his guests. The men of Sodom surround Lot's house and demand that he bring out the strangers so that they may 'know' them (a euphemism for sexual intercourse). Two angels sent to the cities, are invited by Lot to take refuge with his family for the night. Genesis (chapters 18–20) tells how God destroyed the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The term is derived from the Ecclesiastical Latin peccatum Sodomiticum, 'sin of Sodom', which in turn comes from the Ancient Greek word Σόδομα (Sódoma).

A person who practices sodomy is sometimes referred to as a sodomite. In the Western world, many of these laws have been overturned or are routinely not enforced.

Sodomy laws in many countries criminalized the behavior. Originally, the term sodomy, which is derived from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Book of Genesis, was commonly restricted to homosexual anal sex. It may also mean any non- procreative sexual activity.

Sodomy ( / ˈ s ɒ d əm i/), also called buggery in British English, generally refers to either anal sex (but occasionally also oral sex) between people, or any sexual activity between a human and an animal ( bestiality). François Elluin, Sodomites provoking the wrath of God, from Le Pot-Pourri de Loth, 1781

Bestiality anal