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temperance

UK/ˈtɛmpəɹəns/US/ˈtɛmpəɹəns/
nounC2Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,213 of 15,258leans written

Temperance is moderation, especially in drinking. The temperance movement, a temperance hall, preach temperance.

As a plain virtue it means self-restraint in anything, and temperance is one of the four cardinal virtues. Historically it names the nineteenth-century campaign against alcohol, which built halls and coffee houses and drove American Prohibition.

Piero del Pollaiuolo · Public domain

Definitions of temperance

  1. 1nountemperanceModeration, especially in drinking.C2

    “Her grandfather joined a temperance society and never touched alcohol again.”

temperance is a virtue.

Remember it

TEMPERance → the EMPEROR who drinks water

The emperor sits at the feast and drinks only water.

hooks ontoemperor

Where it comes from

Latin temperantia means moderation, from temperare, to moderate or mix in due proportion. Temper is a relative.

  1. Latin

    temperantia — moderation, sobriety, discretion, self-control

  2. Anglo-Norman

    temperance

  3. English, today

    temperance

Built from

  • temperare · Latin — to moderate

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.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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temperance in the wild

  • The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or total abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages.

    Temperance movement

  • The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization.

    Woman's Christian Temperance Union

  • The distinction between temperance and self-control is subtle.

    Temperance (virtue)

  • The Anti-Saloon League, now known as the American Council on Addiction and Alcohol Problems, is an organization of the temperance movement in the United States.

    Anti-Saloon League

  • After a while, temperance groups increasingly pressed for the mandatory prohibition of alcohol rather than for voluntary abstinence.

    American Temperance Society

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • temper