virginity
Americannoun
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the state or condition of being a virgin.
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the state or condition of being pure, fresh, or unused.
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Informal. any naive, uninitiated, or uninformed state.
noun
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the condition or fact of being a virgin; maidenhood; chastity
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the condition of being untouched, unsullied, etc
Etymology
Origin of virginity
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English virginite, from Anglo-French, Old French, from Latin virginitāt-, stem of virginitās, equivalent to virgin- (stem of virgō virgin ) + -itās -ity
Explanation
Virginity is the condition of never having had sex. Someone who has never had sex is a virgin. The name for this condition is virginity, and it is usually discussed as something that is lost. As soon as someone has sex, they've lost their virginity. Virginity is one of those things that, once lost, can't be regained.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ms. Simanjuntak added, “The approach we use is simply: Virginity tests are not able to find out whether a woman is a virgin or not.”
From New York Times • Aug. 11, 2021
But in our case, it helped us find at least one other account associated with what appeared to be the same email used by the Brigham Young group—that of the National Virginity Council.
From Slate • Jul. 21, 2021
Virginity testing is a highly invasive and entirely unscientific practice rooted in a patriarchal obsession with women’s “purity”.
From The Guardian • Jan. 11, 2020
“The vast majority of what’s sold around the world as ‘extra-virgin olive oil’ isn’t extra-virgin at all,” said Tom Mueller, the author of “Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil.”
From New York Times • May 22, 2015
A third treatise was entitled Exhortation to Virginity; a fourth, On the Fate of a Virgin, is more curious.
From Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 by Disraeli, Isaac
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
