infidelity

American  

[in-fi-del-i-tee] / ˌɪn fɪˈdɛl ɪ ti /

noun

plural

infidelities

1. marital disloyalty; adultery.

2. unfaithfulness; disloyalty.

3. lack of religious faith, especially Christian faith.

4. a breach of trust or a disloyal act; transgression.

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infidelity British  

/ ˌɪnfɪˈdɛlɪtɪ /

noun

1. lack of faith or constancy, esp sexual faithfulness

2. lack of religious faith; disbelief

3. an act or instance of disloyalty

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Etymology

Origin of infidelity

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Latin infidēlitās; equivalent to infidel + -ity

Example Sentences

Stockpile evidence of infidelity as he accompanies Gwyn on a book tour in America?

From The Wall Street Journal

So Night and Day was about journalism and its purposes; the Real Thing was about love and infidelity and starred Felicity Kendal, for whom Stoppard left his second wife, the doctor and broadcaster Miriam Stoppard.

From BBC

In between unfolds a drama of infidelity, jealousy and, as embodied by Mr. Allen’s character, hypochondria.

From The Wall Street Journal

He has also recently been in the headlines after ex-wife Lily Allen's new record West End Girl offered a detailed account of their split, amid accusations of infidelity.

From BBC

For writers in the 1960s, middle-class infidelity offered a keyhole to deeper social themes—“the relation of individual to collective decadence,” the critic Wilfrid Sheed wrote of Updike’s fiction.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• adultery
• affair
• betrayal
• duplicity
• treachery