celibate

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: cel=i=bate

CIDE DICTIONARY

celibate, n. [L. aelibatus, fr. caelebs unmarried, single.].

•  Celibate state; celibacy.  [1913 Webster]

  "He . . . preferreth holy celibate before the estate of marriage."  [1913 Webster]
•  One who is unmarried, esp. a bachelor, or one bound by vows not to marry.  [1913 Webster]

celibate, a. 

 Unmarried; single; as, a celibate state.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

celibate, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 committed to abstention from sexual relations and from marriage, esp. for religious reasons.
2 abstaining from sexual relations.
--n. a celibate person.

Derivative

celibacy n.

Etymology

F c{eacute}libat or L caelibatus unmarried state f. caelebs -ibis unmarried

THESAURUS

celibate

Apostolic, Encratic, Lenten, Platonic, Pythagorean, Rechabite, Shaker, Spartan, Stoic, abbacomes, abbot, absolute, abstemious, abstinent, acarpous, alone, arid, ascetic, azygous, bachelor, barren, beadsman, brother, caloyer, celibataire, cenobite, chaste, childless, continent, conventual, conventual prior, desert, desolate, drained, dried-up, dry, exhausted, fallow, first and last, friar, fruitarian, fruitless, gaunt, gelded, grand prior, hermit, hieromonach, immaculate, impair, impotent, ineffectual, infecund, infertile, intact, issueless, jejune, lay abbot, lay brother, leached, lone, maidenly, mendicant, menopausal, misogamic, misogamist, misogynist, misogynous, monachal, monastic, monk, monkish, nephalistic, nonfertile, nonproducing, nonproductive, nonprolific, nun, odd, on the wagon, one and only, only, only-begotten, palmer, pilgrim, pillar saint, pillarist, priest, prior, pure, religieux, religious, sexually abstinent, sine prole, single, singular, sole, spinster, sterile, stylite, sucked dry, sworn off, teemless, teetotal, uncultivated, undefiled, unfertile, unfruitful, unique, unmarried, unpaired, unplowed, unproductive, unprolific, unrepeated, unsown, unsullied, untilled, unwed, vegetarian, vestal, virgin, virginal, virtuous, waste, wasted, without issue