Word.ws English Dictionary

incels

incels is the plural of incel.

Meaning of incel

Noun

incel (countable and uncountable, plural incels)

  1. (informal, rare) "Involuntary celibacy": the state of being not sexually active despite wishing to be.
  2. Someone (especially a man) who desires a sexual relationship but considers themselves unable to attract a partner; (often specifically), a member of an online subculture of people who identify in this way, often adopting resentful or misogynistic attitudes towards women as a result.
    • Though, involuntary celibates (or incels) shouldn't try to rationalize a dateless season or pass off sexual awkwardness as virtue; […]2004, Phineas Mollod, Jason Tesauro, The Modern Lover: A Playbook for Suitors, Spouses & Ringless Carousers, Ten Speed Press, published 2004, →ISBN, page 90
    Antonyms:
    volcel

See all 3 meanings of incel

Questions about incels

What is incels the plural of?
Incels is the plural of incel.

Words near incels in the dictionary

  1. incelism
  2. incellike
  3. incelly
  4. incelosphere
  5. incelospheres
  6. incels
  7. incelspeak
  8. incend
  9. incended
  10. incendiaries
  11. incendiarism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: incels (page history and authors); incel (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: “incels.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/incels. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.