infidelity

American  

[in-fi-del-i-tee] / ˌɪn fɪˈdɛl ɪ ti /

noun

PLURAL

infidelities

1. marital disloyalty; adultery.

2. unfaithfulness; disloyalty.

3. lack of religious faith, especially Christian faith.

4. a breach of trust or a disloyal act; transgression.

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infidelity British  

/ ˌɪnfɪˈdɛlɪtɪ /

noun

1. lack of faith or constancy, esp sexual faithfulness

2. lack of religious faith; disbelief

3. an act or instance of disloyalty

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Etymology

Origin of infidelity

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Latin infidēlitās; equivalent to infidel + -ity

Example Sentences

So Night and Day was about journalism and its purposes; the Real Thing was about love and infidelity and starred Felicity Kendal, for whom Stoppard left his second wife, the doctor and broadcaster Miriam Stoppard.

From BBC

In between unfolds a drama of infidelity, jealousy and, as embodied by Mr. Allen’s character, hypochondria.

From The Wall Street Journal

The judgment comes after months of contentious hearings that uncovered scathing allegations about their relationship including accusations of infidelity, drug addiction and abuse.

From Los Angeles Times

He has also recently been in the headlines after ex-wife Lily Allen's new record West End Girl offered a detailed account of their split, amid accusations of infidelity.

From BBC

For writers in the 1960s, middle-class infidelity offered a keyhole to deeper social themes—“the relation of individual to collective decadence,” the critic Wilfrid Sheed wrote of Updike’s fiction.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• adultery
• affair
• betrayal
• duplicity
• treachery