Word.ws English Dictionary

continences

continences is the plural of continence.

Meaning of continence

Noun

continence (usually uncountable, plural continences)

  1. (usually) The voluntary control of urination and defecation.
    • To maintain continence, the puborectalis muscle chokes the anal canal. The sling of tissue is supposed to release during defecation. Mine has not been doing that.2022 October 2, Cara Schacter, “My Year of Stress and Constipation”, in The New York Times
  2. (usually) Moderation or self-restraint, especially in sexual activity; abstinence.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:continence.
  3. (usually) Uninterrupted course; continuity.
    • the Continence of the Cause should be divided1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani: Or, A Commentary, by Way of Supplement to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England. […], London: […] D. Leach, and sold by John...

Questions about continences

What is continences the plural of?
Continences is the plural of continence.

Words near continences in the dictionary

  1. contiguous 48
  2. contiguous United States
  3. contiguously
  4. contiguousness
  5. continence
  6. continences
  7. continencies
  8. continency
  9. continent
  10. continent of stability
  11. continental

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: continences (page history and authors); continence (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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Cite this entry: “continences.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/continences. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.