Toronto, Dec 2 (IANS): Women are better at defining casual sex encounters than men, says a new study, adding that this is because such sexual encounters put women in a more risky situation in society.

To reach this conclusion, researchers from the University of Ottawa in Canada sent an online questionnaire to 800 participants below the age of 30 on social media.

It asked about their personal sexual experience and how would they define forms of causal sex such as one night stands, booty calls and friends with benefits, the National Post reported.

The questionnaire described a one night stand as sex between strangers or people who do not know each other that well.

A booty call often involves late night drunken text messages or phone calls that lead to sex between people who do know each other.

Friends with benefits refers to a relationship that is not all about fornication (consensual sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other) and is likely to survive as a friendship when the sex stops.

Overall, more than 81 percent of participants got the definitions for each phrase right and women performed better.

"We found that women who have had sex are better than men at deciphering the lingo for casual sexual relationships because of the greater risk uncommitted coitus poses to them," the authors said.

The findings appeared in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality.