Word.ws English Dictionary

nephalism

nephalism noun: the practice of abstaining completely from the drinking of alcohol; teetotalism.

Noun

nephalism (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete, Temperance movement) The practice of abstaining completely from the drinking of alcohol; teetotalism
    • Our Nephalism we seek to honour as a stepping-stone to the gospel[…1862, James Miller, Nephalism, the true temperance of Scripture, science, and experience, page 109
    • The medical profession is somewhat divided in its estimate of the comparative value of temperance and of nephalism in promoting the designs which we have in view.1881 January 26, Bishop of Goulburn, quotee, “Church of England Temperance Society”, in Sydney Morning Herald

Origin of nephalism

From Ancient Greek νηφάλιος (nēphálios, “sober”), from νήφω (nḗphō, “to be sober”).

Questions about nephalism

What does nephalism mean?
Nephalism means the practice of abstaining completely from the drinking of alcohol; teetotalism.
What part of speech is nephalism?
Nephalism is a noun.

Words near nephalism in the dictionary

  1. nepeta
  2. nepetalactone
  3. nepetas
  4. nepetin
  5. neph
  6. nephalism
  7. nephalist
  8. nephalists
  9. nephashoth
  10. nephelauxetic
  11. Nephele

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nephalism (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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