Infidelity

Origin

From Middle French infidélité, from Latin infidelitas

Full definition of infidelity

Noun

1. Unfaithfulness in marriage: practice or instance of having a sexual or romantic affair with someone other than one's spouse, without the consent of the spouse.
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.

Synonyms

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

Antonyms

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

Related terms

• (religious) infidel