infidelity

English

Etymology

From Middle French infidélité, from Latin infidelitas

Noun

infidelity (countable and uncountable, plural infidelities)

1. Unfaithfulness in a marriage or an intimate relationship: practice or instance of having a sexual or romantic affair with someone other than one's spouse, without the consent of the spouse.
   • 2013, William G. Staples, Everyday Surveillance: Vigilance and Visibility (ISBN 1442226293), page 155:

     Your friends tell you rumors about your girlfriend's infidelity or you remember being broken up around the time the baby was conceived.

2. Unfaithfulness in some other moral obligation.
   • 1937, Arnold Oskar Meyer, England in German opinion throughout the centuries, page 6:

     It was disastrous that England's infidelity towards Frederick the Great — which no one, not even a German, condemned more strongly than did William Pitt — had to affect one of the most popular heroes of our national history.

3. Lack of religious belief.
   • Bishop Ward

     The means used to this purpose are partly didactical, and partly protreptical; demonstrating the truth of the gospel, and then urging the professors of those truths to be stedfast^[sic] in the faith, and to beware of infidelity.

Synonyms

• (marital): adultery
• (moral): betrayal
• (religious): faithlessness

Antonyms

• (moral): faithfulness
• (moral): loyalty
• (moral): fidelity

Related terms

• (religious): infidel

Translations

unfaithfulness in marriage or other moral obligation

• Asturian: infidelidá f
• Catalan: infidelitat f
• Czech: nevěra f
• French: infidélité (fr) f
• Galician: infidelidade (gl)
• Irish: mídhílseacht f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: utroskap m

• Polish: niewierność (pl) f
• Portuguese: infidelidade (pt)
• Romanian: infidelitate (ro) f
• Russian: неве́рность (ru) f (nevérnostʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: adhaltranas m
• Spanish: infidelidad (es) f
• Turkish: ihanet (tr), aldatma (tr)

lack of religious belief

• Catalan: infidelitat f
• Czech: nevíra f
• Galician: infidelidade (gl) f
• Irish: ainchreideamh m, éigreideamh m
• Polish: niewiara (pl) f

• Portuguese: infidelidade (pt) f
• Russian: безве́рие (ru) n (bezvérije)
• Scottish Gaelic: neo-chreidmheachd f
• Spanish: infidelidad (es) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: ontrouw c

See also

• infidelity on Wikipedia.Wikipedia