one who has vowed not to marry one word
Celibacy A. W. Richard Sipe, while focusing on the topic of celibacy in Catholicism, states that "the most commonly assumed definition of celibate is simply an unmarried or single person, and celibacy is perceived as synonymous with sexual abstinence or restraint."[17] Sipe adds that even in the relatively uniform milieu of Catholic priests in the United States "there is simply no clear operational definition of celibacy".[18] Elizabeth Abbott commented on the terminology in her A History of Celibacy (2001): "I also drafted a definition that discarded the rigidly pedantic and unhelpful distinctions between celibacy, chastity and virginity".[19]