hermitage
noun
the habitation of a hermit.
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hermitage
1
British
/ ˈhɜːmɪtɪdʒ /
noun
-
the abode of a hermit
-
any place where a person may live in seclusion; retreat
Hermitage
2
British
/ ˈhɜːmɪtɪdʒ /
noun
Hermitage
3
British
/ ˈhɜːmɪtɪdʒ /
noun
Etymology
Origin of hermitage
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Old French; see hermit, eremite, -age
Explanation
Your summer cabin deep in the woods where you go to think about how funny life is sometimes? If you want to sound fancy, it could be called a hermitage, a dwelling removed from civilization. The noun hermitage has origins in the French word hermite, meaning “hermit,” a person who lives alone, far from society. Hermitage can describe the place where a hermit lives, or a dwelling occupied by an isolated religious group that prefers solitude. But the word is likely to be used more broadly to describe a secluded or remote dwelling, a place of solitude, where you won’t run into a neighbor while mowing the lawn in the backyard.
Vocabulary lists containing hermitage
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "H"
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My Antonia
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The manuscript opens with the life of Giovanni of Florence, who built the Augustinian hermitage of Santa Lucia in Larniano with help from local farmers.
From Science Daily • Feb. 2, 2026
Unless somebody at Google HQ has just made a fix, Google Maps will tell you incorrectly that the hermitage and lodge are beyond the road closure.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 29, 2025
He continues to be struck by the emotional effect the island has on those who visit the monastery and hermitage.
From BBC • Aug. 13, 2022
“Seven Steeples” is an account of hermitage, of Bell and Sigh, a young couple hiding in a dilapidated, wind-struck house on the Irish coast.
From New York Times • Apr. 26, 2022
This was not the crumbling hermitage where Hamlet and I used to meet Slowly the awareness came to me that I was in Mechtild’s cottage.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
