Celibate
adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 One who is not married, especially one who has taken a religious vow not to get married, usually because of being a member of a religious community. uncountable
"Even during the ages that priestly marriage was permitted, celibates obtained a higher reputation for sanctity and virtue than married priests, who infinitely more than celibates were believed subject to infestation by demons."
- 2 A celibate state; celibacy. obsolete, uncountable
"He […] preferreth holy Cœlibate before the eſtate of Marriage, […]"
- 3 an unmarried person who has taken a religious vow of chastity wordnet
- 1 To practice celibacy. intransitive, rare
"However, be that as it may, Stason celebrated with the boys while Hessel celibated alone."
- 1 Not married. not-comparable
- 2 Abstaining from sexual relations and pleasures. broadly, not-comparable
"Members of religious communities sometimes take vows to remain celibate."
- 1 abstaining from sexual intercourse wordnet
Example
More examples"Being celibate means that you may only do it with other celibates."
Etymology
Probably from the noun (“celibacy”) or from celibacy on the model of privacy/private, etc. Alternatively, from Latin caelebs (“single”) + -ate.
From Latin caelebs + -ate (noun-forming suffix)
From Latin caelebs + -ate (verb-forming suffix)
From French célibat (“celibacy”), from Latin caelibātus (“celibacy”), from caelebs (“unmarried”); compare German Zölibat (“celibacy”). Equivalent to Latin caelebs + -ate (forming nouns denoting a rank, a state)
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.