celibacy

• cælibacy (archaic)

From Latin caelibatus (“celibacy, a single life”), perfect passive participle of caelibare, from caelebs (“unmarried”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛləbəsi/

celibacy (countable and uncountable, plural celibacies)

1. Abstaining from marriage; the state of being unmarried.
   • 1920, American Lutheran Survey‎, volume 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

• celibate

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

• celibacy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• celibacy in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.