temperance
/ˈtɛmpəɹəns/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.15 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Habitual moderation in regard to the indulgence of the natural appetites and passions; restrained or moderate indulgence.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Moderation, and sometimes abstinence, in respect to using intoxicating liquors.
Countable; Uncountable
name
A female given name from English.
name
The fourteenth trump or major arcana card in most traditional Tarot decks.
Example Sentences
- "temperance in eating and drinking"
- "temperance in the indulgence of joy"
- "Who did begin their Feaſtes with Prayers; continue them with Temperance, and Sobrietie; eating no more then would ſuffice their hunger; drinking no more then would quench and ſatisfie their thirſt […]"
- "On these occasions I have noticed such a dreamy, vacant expression in his eyes, that I might have suspected him of being addicted to the use of some narcotic, had not the temperance and cleanliness of his whole life forbidden such a notion."
- "But there was no one to shake Nero into temperance. He had affairs, drank tremendously, raised taxes in the provinces to pay for his indulgences, and started once again to hold the infamous treason trials as Caligula had done."
- "Another error, as it seems to me, into which the old reformers fell, was the position that all habitual drunkards were utterly incorrigible, and therefore must be turned adrift and damned without remedy in order that the grace of temperance might abound, to the temperate then, and to all mankind some hundreds of years thereafter."
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman temperance, from Latin temperantia (“moderation, sobriety, discretion, self-control”), from temperans, present participle of temperare (“to moderate”). See temper. English equivalent temper + -ance.
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
American Temperance Society
Loyal Temperance Legion
temperance association
temperance bar
temperance beverage
temperance chartism
temperance chartist
Temperance Colonization Society
Frequently Paired Words
temper
temperament
temperamental
temperature
anti-prohibitionist
antiprohibitionist
Anti-Saloon League
blind pig