intemperance

American  

[in-tem-per-uhns, -pruhns] / ɪnˈtɛm pər əns, -prəns /

noun

1. excessive or immoderate indulgence in alcoholic beverages.

2. excessive indulgence of appetite or passion.

3. lack of moderation or due restraint, as in action or speech.

4. an act or instance of any of these.

   a long series of intemperances.

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Etymology

Origin of intemperance

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English word from Latin word intemperantia. See in- ³, temperance

Explanation

Intemperance is when you can't do anything half way, or hold yourself back. You might describe your inability to eat a single slice of cake — instead, gobbling the whole thing — as intemperance. When someone isn't able to temper — or moderate — his actions, he is at risk of intemperance. Your uncle shows intemperance when he yells furiously at everyone around him every time he feels angry, and your sister's intemperance might come out in her terrible shopping habit. The opposite of intemperance is moderation. The Latin root word, intemperantia, means "immoderation or excess," and was originally used in English to describe the weather.

Example Sentences

Fault-based divorce, on the other hand, requires the partner seeking the divorce to provide evidence of their spouse's wrongdoing on specific grounds that also vary state-to-state, including cruelty, adultery, intemperance and abandonment.

From Salon • Nov. 4, 2024

The intemperance of rebellion and the wisdom of experience — that’s the balance Green Day strikes on “Saviors,” the trio’s 14th studio LP.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 15, 2024

And intemperance is the order of the day.

From Washington Post • Jun. 27, 2022

Still, faulting a novel of this register for intemperance feels like faulting an opera for being “too loud.”

From New York Times • Apr. 3, 2022

I was there—on the very rim of our age— when my mother’s cataclysmic intemperance, as you well know, catapulted me into the fever of contemporary existence.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole