Chastity is the choice, rule, or state of not having sex — or of having sex only with your husband or wife. It is not only a fact about the body. It is often a virtue: a way a person, a church, or a family says a life should be. In religious talk a nun, a monk, or a priest may take a vow of chastity, meaning they will not have sex at all. For a married person, the same word can mean staying only with that one partner. The noun sounds formal, church-like, and a little old. Young people in ordinary talk more often say they are waiting, or not ready, than “I live in chastity.” Though actually, people also stretch it: they may say chastity when they only mean “no dating right now,” which is looser than the old meaning. You will also meet chastity belt in history and in jokes — a belt meant to stop sex. That object is more story than everyday life now, but the phrase is still used. The word is for any person; older moral talk often aimed it at women more than men, which says more about those times than about the English word itself.