noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Abstaining from marriage; the state of being unmarried. countable, uncountable

   "They came to believe that men, who would live a godly life, must view marriage as a sin and choose a life of celibacy."

2. 2
   abstaining from sexual relations (as because of religious vows) wordnet
3. 3
   Abstinence from sexual relations. broadly, countable, uncountable
4. 4
   an unmarried status wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

chastityabstainmentabstemiousnessabstentionabstinencealienation

Example

More examples

"Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures."

Etymology

From Latin caelibātus (“celibacy, a single life”), from caelebs (“unmarried”).

Related phrases

celibacy syndrome

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.