incel

[in-sel]

noun

1. a member of an online subculture of men who want to have sex but are unable to find sexual partners, typically blaming women or hating people who are sexually successful (often used attributively).

   Perhaps unsurprisingly, contemplation and discussion of suicide features prominently on incel forums.

Word History and Origins

Origin of incel¹

First recorded in 1990–95; earlier INVCEL, short for involuntarily celibate

Example Sentences

"The incel line doesn't sum the play up at all," says Freeman.

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In fact, the 35-year-old actor says he finds it "reductive how society pigeonholes a piece of art straight away", referencing how some people have focused too much on the incel culture aspect of the play rather than "seeing it as two people talking very openly".

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"I think I might be an incel."

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She acknowledges young people now are exposed to far more than readers were in the 1990s or 2000s, with conversations about misogyny, online abuse and even incel culture filtering down into classrooms.

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"If I were to put something as troubling as the whole incel thing into a children's book, it would only ever be implied," she explains.

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