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• virgin
  virgin

  noun

  a person who has never had sexual intercourse.
• Virgin
  Virgin

  noun

  See Virgin Mary

virgin

American  

[vur-jin] / ˈvɜr dʒɪn /

noun

• virgins
  plural

1. a person who has never had sexual intercourse.

2. an unmarried girl or woman.

   Synonyms:

   maiden, maid

3. Ecclesiastical. an unmarried, religious woman, especially a saint.

4. the Virgin, Mary, the mother of Christ.

5. Informal. any person who is uninitiated, uninformed, or the like.

   He's still a virgin as far as hard work is concerned.

6. a female animal that has never copulated.

7. an unfertilized insect.

8. Astronomy, Astrology. Virgin, the constellation or sign of Virgo.

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adjective

1. being a virgin.

   a virgin martyr.

2. of, relating to, or characteristic of a virgin.

   virgin modesty.

3. pure; unsullied; undefiled.

   virgin snow.

   Synonyms:

   chaste

   Antonyms:

   defiled

4. first.

   the senator's virgin speech.

5. without admixture, alloy, or modification.

   virgin gold.

   Synonyms:

   unadulterated, unalloyed

   Antonyms:

   impure

6. not previously exploited, cultivated, tapped, or used: virgin wool.

   virgin timberlands;

   virgin wool.

   Synonyms:

   untouched, pristine, new

7. without experience of; not previously exposed to.

   a mind virgin to such sorrows.

8. Informal. being a mixed drink resembling a specific cocktail but made without any alcoholic ingredient.

   a virgin piña colada.

9. Zoology. not fertilized.

10. (of a metal) made directly from ore by smelting, rather than from scrap.

11. noting the oil obtained, as from olives, by the first pressing without the application of heat.

virgin ¹ British  

/ ˈvɜːdʒɪn /

noun

1. a person, esp a woman, who has never had sexual intercourse

2. an unmarried woman who has taken a religious vow of chastity in order to dedicate herself totally to God

3. any female animal that has never mated

4. a female insect that produces offspring by parthenogenesis

5. a person who is new to or inexperienced in a specified field

   a political virgin

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adjective

1. of, relating to, resembling, suitable for, or characteristic of a virgin or virgins; chaste

2. pure and natural, uncorrupted, unsullied, or untouched

   virgin purity

3. not yet cultivated, explored, exploited, etc, by man

   virgin territories

4. being the first or happening for the first time

5. (of vegetable oils) obtained directly by the first pressing of fruits, leaves, or seeds of plants without applying heat

6. (of a metal) made from an ore rather than from scrap

7. occurring naturally in a pure and uncombined form

   virgin silver

8. physics (of a neutron) not having experienced a collision

Virgin ² British  

/ ˈvɜːdʒɪn /

noun

1. See Virgin Mary

2. a statue or other artistic representation of the Virgin Mary

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Virgin ³ British  

/ ˈvɜːdʒɪn /

noun

1. the constellation Virgo, the sixth sign of the zodiac

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unvirgin
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• virgins
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of virgin

First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English virgine, from Anglo-French, Old French, from Latin virgin-, stem of virgō “maiden, virgin”

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Explanation

A virgin is someone who has never had sex. After you have sex, you've lost your virginity. We can also say an unharvested forest is a virgin forest. Virgins haven't had sex yet. But this word is also used in a non-sexual sense to describe something that remains pristine, untouched, or uninitiated. A virgin resource hasn't been used yet. If you've never given a speech, someone might call you a "public speaking virgin." So virgin always means inexperienced or unused, whether you're talking about sex or something else.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

virgin Virgin virgins

Myshkin, who remains a virgin, loves Nastasya out of intense compassion for her predicament; she in turn reciprocates his interest, stoking Rogozhin’s murderous jealousy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

Were the plant to stop producing virgin steel, the UK would be the only member of the G7 group of leading economies without the ability to make it.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

Shirley Temple gets passing recognition, only via her namesake drink when the Minions visit a nightclub and sip virgin cocktails loaded with cherries.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026

That previous trial showed that a Mediterranean diet enriched with extra virgin olive oil or nuts reduced cardiovascular disease risk by 30%.

From Science Daily ● May 19, 2026

She was a virgin and she had the unlikely name of Santa Sofía de la Piedad.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Virgin Islands, which has one of the highest per-capita homicide rates in the world.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026

Thousands of Virgin Media O2 staff face redundancy risk as the telecoms firm looks to save money in the face of billions of pounds of debt and tougher competition.

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026

The exit of the four countries leaves 18 on the FATF's grey list, including Bosnia, Bolivia, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and the British Virgin islands.

From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026

By contrast, Virgin Galactic’s ships are dedicated to space tourism.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026

“Look at this,” his wife said one afternoon as she sat on the floor of their room near a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

Working with mice, the researchers first created four test groups: unstressed virgins, stressed virgins, unstressed mothers and stressed mothers.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 16, 2024

Folklore, particularly in the Muslim world, contains many stories of women who breastfed children other than their own, including tales of virgins doing so without ever having given birth.

From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2023

Before we start: a wee plot summary for the “Sleepless in Seattle” virgins out there.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 20, 2023

One month ago he told an internet forum group for virgins: "I'm doing better got a job as a crane operator."

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2021

They made satin tufted shrouds: white ones for dead virgins, pale lavender for the young married, purple for the middle-aged and black for the old.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

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