What does "skoptsy" mean?

An underground religious movement in Russia, known for practising castration and mastectomy in accordance with their teachings. The movement was active to the mid 20th century.

Skoptsy

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
An underground religious movement in Russia, known for practising castration and mastectomy in accordance with their teachings. The movement was active to the mid 20th century. plural, plural-only
2
The members of this movement. Singular form is Skopets plural, plural-only

Example

More examples

"I have a collection of spiritual songs of the Russian mystical sectarians, mainly of the Khlysts and Skoptsy, published at the beginning of the twentieth century."

Etymology

Russian скопцы́ (skopcý)

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