Chastity. One of the three vows taken by members of religious orders, congregations, and societies is that of "perpetual chastity," entailing the expectation of total, lifelong abstinence from all intentional sexual expression. The concept of chastity, however, as used in Christian discourse, has a wider and more positive connotation: that of a disposition and outlook rather than mere abstention from carnal, sexual activity. In this sense married persons no less than single ones may be chaste or unchaste. Chastity in this sense designates a state of mind in which the sexual desires that human beings share with other animals tend through habitual sublimation to be transformed into specifically human attitudes, desires, and concerns, such as are beyond the capacity of lower forms of mammalian life. Traditional Christian thought exalts chastity as a virtue that promotes the development of that inner awareness of a dimension of being beyond the one known directly through the five senses and so makes possible that life "in Christ" that is the Christian goal, which unchastity impedes.

Geddes MacGregor, Dictionary of Religion and Philosophy, New York: Paragon House, 1989

chastity : (f.) anavajjatā. (nt.) anatikkamana.

A.P. Buddhadatta Mahathera, Concise Pali-English and English-Pali Dictionary [available as digital version from Metta Net, Sri Lanka]