celibate

as in chaste
not engaging in sexual intercourse celibate monks and nuns They have chosen to lead celibate lives.

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of celibate Julia Fox, Lenny Kravitz and Khloé Kardashian have all come out as celibate in the last three months. Anne Branigin, Washington Post, 21 July 2024 As if women didn’t already have enough reason to fear men, the rise of the incel (involuntarily celibate) movement surely represents one of the most disheartening and dangerous subcultures to have sprung from the internet’s rotten skull. Chris Wheatley, Longreads, 6 June 2024 Supporters of Sabarimala’s ban argue that no other Ayyappan temple restricts women’s access because nowhere else does Ayyappan appear in his celibate ascetic form. Deepa Das Acevedo, Foreign Affairs, 4 Apr. 2019 Lenny Kravitz has been celibate for almost a decade and Ice-T does not approve. Lester Fabian Brathwaite, EW.com, 31 May 2024 See all Example Sentences for celibate 
Recent Examples of Synonyms for celibate
Adjective
  • The medieval image of rape—as the act of a violent stranger upon a chaste victim who goes straight to the authorities—persisted undisturbed in American courts through the nineteen-sixties.
    Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 3 Feb. 2025
  • Soil and Water Well-draining soil is critical for chaste trees.
    Rita Pelczar, Better Homes & Gardens, 20 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • The cross-continent trek for Rye Riptides, which students and now-retired Rye Junior High School science teacher Sheila Adams stuffed with photos of the Rye students, a facemask with their signatures on it, fall leaves, acorns and state quarters, was conducted with the help of Educational Passages.
    Ian Lenahan, USA TODAY, 17 Feb. 2022
  • The totem pole was carved by members of the Lummi Nation and is being transported from their home in Washington state to Washington, D.C., as part of a 15-day, cross-continent journey to advocate for the protection of sacred places and the expansion of tribal sovereignty rights.
    Zak Podmore, The Salt Lake Tribune, 18 July 2021
Adjective
  • The series follows four unmarried couples who are at a crossroads and have decided to put their relationship to the ultimate test by living in separate villas; the men will live in one with a group of single women while the women will live in a house of single men.
    Emily Longeretta, Variety, 30 Jan. 2025
  • In one study, for example, medical professionals more often judged the same childhood injury as abuse rather than an accident if told that the child’s parents were unmarried or drug users—both of which appear to be true of Roberson.
    Jeff Kukucka, Scientific American, 26 Oct. 2024
Adjective
  • Her approach is a clean break from the 19th-century tradition of American landscape art, in which de facto propagandists like Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Cole depicted land as radiant and virginal, the birthright of any colonial buccaneer drunk on Manifest Destiny.
    Jeremy Lybarger, ARTnews.com, 6 Jan. 2025
  • Depp goes beyond Ellen’s virginal purity to complicate our understanding of this character’s relationship to darkness — how she is at once disturbed by and deeply intimate with it.
    David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • After a 16-month war that started with the horrific killing of 1,200 innocent Israelis and abduction of 250 more by Hamas terrorists and then the killing of more than 47,500 people in Gaza — mostly women and children — a fragile ceasefire began Jan. 19.
    Mike Quigley, Chicago Tribune, 11 Feb. 2025
  • One day, during an innocent prank call in a phone booth, Richard shockingly witnesses his classmate violently get sucked into the phone receiver and disappear without a trace.
    Alex Ritman, Variety, 11 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • In addition to saving on waste and reducing the need for virgin resources, circular systems offer financial savings.
    SJ Studio, Sourcing Journal, 6 Feb. 2025
  • This reduces demand for virgin fibers and delays the need for recycling.
    Lewis Perkins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Jan. 2025

Thesaurus Entries Near celibate

Cite this Entry

“Celibate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/celibate. Accessed 21 Feb. 2025.

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