celibate or chaste

Believe it or not, you can be celibate without being chaste, and chaste withoutbeing celibate. A celibate person is merely unmarried, usually (but not always)because of a vow of celibacy. The traditional assumption is that such a personis not having sex with anyone, which leads many to confuse the word with“chaste,” denoting someone who does not have illicit sex. A woman could havewild sex twice a day with her lawful husband and technically still be chaste,though the word is more often used to imply a general abstemiousness from sexand sexuality. You can always amuse your readers by misspelling the latter wordas “chased.”

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• in route vs en route
• bias vs biased
• resign vs re-sign
• whimp vs wimp
• ect. vs etc.
• heal vs heel
• infact vs in fact
• tooken vs took vs taken
• any where vs anywhere
• amature vs amateur

Definitions

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• n  an unmarried person who has taken a religious vow of chastity
• s  abstaining from sexual intercourse
  celibate priests

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• a  morally pure (especially not having experienced sexual intercourse)
  a holy woman innocent and chaste
• s  pure and simple in design or style
  a chaste border of conventionalized flowers
• s  abstaining from unlawful sexual intercourse

News & Articles

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• Bruning resigns as pastor, admits to violating vow of celibacy
  KANSAS CITY, Kan. --- The Rev. William "Bill" Bruning, the founding pastor of Topeka's Mother Teresa of Calcutta Parish, has resigned as pastor of Prince of Peace Parish in Olathe after admitting he had violated his vow of celibate chastity, the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas has announced.
  June 19, 2013 - The Topeka Capital-Journal
• Bruning resigns as pastor, admits to violating vow of celibacy
  The Rev. William "Bill" Bruning, the founding pastor of Topeka's Mother Teresa of Calcutta Parish, has resigned as pastor of Prince of Peace Parish in Olathe after admitting he had violated his vow of celibate chastity, the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas has announced.
  June 19, 2013 - The Topeka Capital-Journal

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• ‘Reform’ hypocrite
  ‘Lord, make me chaste,” wrote Augustine of Hippo, “but not yet.” Sort of like Andrew of Albany, who wants to “reduce the influence of money in politics” — but not until after he’s safely re-elected. That is, not until after he spends down the $22-million-plus he already has squirreled away...
  June 14, 2013 - New York Post
• ‘Reform’ hypocrite
  ‘Lord, make me chaste,” wrote Augustine of Hippo, “but not yet.” Sort of like Andrew of Albany, who wants to “reduce the influence of money in politics” — but not until after he’s safely re-elected. That is, not until after he spends down the $22-million-plus he already has squirreled away...
  June 14, 2013 - New York Post