celibacy
/ˈsɛləbəsi/
celibacy noun: abstaining from marriage; the state of being unmarried.
Noun
celibacy (countable and uncountable, plural celibacies)
- Abstaining from marriage; the state of being unmarried.
- They came to believe that men, who would live a godly life, must view marriage as a sin and choose a life of celibacy.1920, American Lutheran Survey, volumes 13-14, page 16
- I could document this defense of celibacy. Unmarried women show up very well in all the tests of mental health.1970, The Futurist, page 42
- Abstinence from sexual relations.
celibacy meaning in Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada and Arabic
celibacy in Bengali
- বিয়ে থেকে বিরত থাকা, অবিবাহিত থাকার অবস্থা
celibacy in Malayalam
- ബ്രഹ്മചര്യവ്രതം, പ്രതിജ്ഞയാൽ വിവാഹം കഴിക്കാതിരിക്കൽ
celibacy in Kannada
- ಮದುವೆಯಾಗದಿರುವಿಕೆ
celibacy in Arabic
- state of being unmarried
- عُنُوسَة ʕunūsa
More languagesFewer languages
- celibacy in Thai
- การอยู่เป็นโสด
Examples of celibacy in a sentence
- In this way, Tomoya blurs the lines between asexuality, aromanticity, and celibacy.
- Her celibacy and her vegetarianism emerged at precisely the same hour.
- Instead, she hastens straight to the boudoir of the queen who chose celibacy as a means of wielding power.
Synonyms of celibacy
Forms of celibacy
| plural | celibacies |
|---|---|
| alternative form | cælibacy |
Origin of celibacy
From Latin caelibātus (“celibacy, a single life”), from caelebs (“unmarried”). By surface analysis, celib(ate) + -acy.
Words formed from celibacy
Questions about celibacy
- What does celibacy mean?
- Celibacy means abstaining from marriage; the state of being unmarried.
- What is celibacy in Bengali?
- Celibacy in Bengali is বিয়ে থেকে বিরত থাকা, অবিবাহিত থাকার অবস্থা. See Celibacy meaning in Bengali.
- What part of speech is celibacy?
- Celibacy is a noun.
- How do you pronounce celibacy?
- Celibacy is pronounced /ˈsɛləbəsi/.
- What is the plural of celibacy?
- The plural of celibacy is celibacies.
Words near celibacy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: celibacy (page history and authors); celibacy (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); celibacy (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); celibacy (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-celibacy.wav.
Cite this entry: “celibacy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/celibacy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.