incel.
"Involuntary celibacy": the state of being not sexually active despite wishing to be.
Meaning & usage
"Involuntary celibacy": the state of being not sexually active despite wishing to be.
Someone (especially a man) who desires a sexual relationship but considers themselves unable to attract a partner; (often specifically), a member of an online subculture of people who identify in this way, often adopting resentful or misogynistic attitudes towards women as a result.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Italic *n̥- Latin in-bor. Middle English in- English in- Middle English voluntarie English voluntary English involuntarysyl. abbr. Latin caelebslbor. English -ate English celibatesyl. abbr. English incel Syllabic abbreviation of involuntary celibate. Coined by "Alana" in 1997 on an online forum (originally as invcel). Came to widespread usage in the mid-2010s, chiefly online, but now more widespread.
Not having sexual relations despite wishing to.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Italic *n̥- Latin in-bor. Middle English in- English in- Middle English voluntarie English voluntary English involuntarysyl. abbr. Latin caelebslbor. English -ate English celibatesyl. abbr. English incel Syllabic abbreviation of involuntary celibate. Coined by "Alana" in 1997 on an online forum (originally as invcel). Came to widespread usage in the mid-2010s, chiefly online, but now more widespread.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.