celibacy

• cælibacy (archaic)

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛləbəsi/

• Audio (Southern England)

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celibacy (countable and uncountable, plural celibacies)

1. Abstaining from marriage; the state of being unmarried.
   • 1920, American Lutheran Survey‎, volumes 13-14, page 16:

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

   • 1970, The Futurist‎, page 42:

     I could document this defense of celibacy. Unmarried women show up very well in all the tests of mental health.

2. (by extension) Abstinence from sexual relations.

• sexlessness

• chastity

• celibacy syndrome

• celibate

• abstinence
• asexuality
• chaste
• chastity
• purity
• bachelordom

• “celibacy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “celibacy”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.