temperance
noun
Did you know?
Since temperance means basically "moderation", you might assume that, with respect to alcohol, temperance would mean moderate consumption, or "social drinking". Instead, the word has usually meant the prohibition of all alcohol. To temperance leaders such as Carry Nation, the safest form of drinking was no alcohol at all. Believing she was upholding the law, Nation began her hatchet-swinging attacks on saloons, known as "hatchetations", in the 1890s. National prohibition did eventually come—and go—but largely through the efforts of more temperate (that is, moderate) reformers.
Examples of temperance in a Sentence
Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 27 Oct. 2024
Hartley connected his temperance and milk crusades in An Essay on Milk from 1842, arguing that milk produced in cities was impure not just because of its adulteration by contaminants like formaldehyde, but also because of its sourcing from urban swill sheds.
—Catherine Long, JSTOR Daily, 17 Jan. 2024
Nowhere is this clearer than in the history of the temperance movement whose advocacy led to Prohibition.
—Elizabeth Marshall / Made By History, TIME, 23 Oct. 2024
The temperance look feels like a reaction against a beauty standard drifting away from whiteness; in other words, it is related to the death of Kardashianism, where even the sisters appear to be lightening their tans and slimming their backsides.
—Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for temperance 
Dictionary Entries Near temperance
Cite this Entry
“Temperance.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/temperance. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
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