chaste
Americanadjective
-
refraining from sexual intercourse that is regarded as contrary to morality or religion; virtuous.
- Synonyms:
- continent
- Antonyms:
- immoral
-
not engaging in sexual relations; celibate.
-
free from obscenity; decent.
chaste conversation.
- Antonyms:
- coarse
-
undefiled or stainless.
chaste, white snow.
- Synonyms:
- unsullied
-
pure in style; not excessively ornamented; simple.
- Synonyms:
- neat, unaffected
- Antonyms:
- ornate
-
Obsolete. not married.
adjective
-
not having experienced sexual intercourse; virginal
-
abstaining from sexual intercourse, esp that which is unlawful or immoral
-
(of conduct, speech, etc) pure; decent; modest
-
(of style or taste) free from embellishment; simple; restrained
Usage
What does chaste mean? Chaste is most commonly used to describe someone who refrains from sexual activity that’s considered immoral, especially according to the teachings of a certain religion. The state or quality of being chaste is chastity. The word chaste can also be used to describe someone who refrains from all sexual activity—someone who is celibate. When members of certain religions take a vow of chastity, this is usually what it means. Chaste can also be used in a more general way to mean morally pure. Example: When I went to Catholic high school, my religion teachers always emphasized the virtue of being chaste.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of chaste
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English, from Old French, from Latin castus “clean, pure, chaste”
Explanation
If you belong to a chastity club, you might have to take a pledge to be chaste until marriage. Chaste can be defined as "pure and virtuous," but basically it means "not having sex." This word is related to the Latin source of the verb castrate "to remove a man's testicles," so it's definitely related to sex. And chaste is from the same Latin source as the noun caste "a Hindu social class separated from other classes." So the word chaste means no sex, and the word caste means pure and virtuous.
Vocabulary lists containing chaste
Mythology
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The Merchant of Venice
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The Odyssey
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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.
See Examples For:
Jesus is widely thought to have never married and to have lived a chaste life.
From Barron's ● Jan. 29, 2026
K-dramas are famously chaste, which is part of their global appeal.
From BBC ● Dec. 9, 2023
Still, these were details ABC might have accounted for before constructing the sensitive, chaste gentleman fantasy that made everyone weak in the knees.
From Salon ● Dec. 2, 2023
And he’ll do it with the same playbook he brought to the politics of his marriage: Be charming, in the service of making radical ideals seem wholesome, chaste, and harmless.
From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2023
Some sappy song would be playing while they flashed to Ashley and me sharing lunch, talking, laughing, looking coy, holding hands—and ending with that first chaste kiss.
From "Shelter (Book One): A Mickey Bolitar Novel" by Harlan Coben
If those are to be delineated at all—and, with a view to their amendment, surely they may—the task could hardly be executed with a chaster and less offensive pencil.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 379, May, 1847 by Various
A fairer virgin never saw the sun; A chaster maid was never sworn a nun.
From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 8 by William Carew Hazlitt
His taste was much simpler, chaster, and disinclined to the florid and ornamental, than that of Cicero.
From The Caesars by Thomas De Quincey
The very crudeness of their speech made chaster yet the childish thought her guileless utterance had caught from spirit-depths beyond our reach.
From Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley — Volume 10 by James Whitcomb Riley
His taste was much simpler, chaster, and less inclined to the florid and Asiatic, than that of Cicero.
From "De Bello Gallico" and Other Commentaries by Julius Caesar
For decades Bollywood produced the chastest of films: boy met girl, but there were no kisses, hips only thrust during dance numbers, and the audience knew that romance would be followed by marriage.
From Time Magazine Archive
The chastest constancy will I ever preserve to thy image.
From History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
Into that tender breast at night The chastest stars may peep.
From Later Poems by Alice Christiana Thompson Meynell
Moreover, he adds, the chaste man is unable to choose a wife wisely, and it is among teachers and clergymen—the chastest class—that most unhappy marriages are made.
From Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 Sex in Relation to Society by Havelock Ellis
Be not displeased that these my papers should Bewray unto the world how fair thou art; Or that my wits have showed the best they could The chastest flame that ever warmèd heart.
From Elizabethan Sonnet-Cycles Delia - Diana by Martha Foote Crow
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.
