noun
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the abode of a hermit
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any place where a person may live in seclusion; retreat
noun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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
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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.
See Examples For:
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
An L.A. artist whose work I want in every room of my home: My decor is very simple and minimal because I like my home to feel like a hermitage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2023
She came to Solas Bhride this year for a weeklong stay in its hermitage.
From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2022
Its artefacts and antiquities consultant Nigel Mills suggested the cross could have been connected with the medieval hermitage and chapel at Throckenholt, which is within the Sutton St Edmund parish.
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2022
His first night in the hermitage was, deliberately, a sleepless one.
From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
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Kent Police said it had charged Aaron Turner, 22, from Hermitage Road in Higham, after the fatal crash near Gravesend on Sunday.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
Even at the New Camaldoli Hermitage, a Benedictine monastery above Lucia, the road’s reopening and coming summer season have made a difference.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
Impersonators then sought refunds of $230 million in capital-gains taxes that Hermitage had paid to Russia’s government, according to the charging documents.
From Barron's ● Mar. 31, 2026
If budget isn’t a concern, I’d recommend Hôtel Hermitage or Hôtel de Paris.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
In 1862, when Nashville fell to Union forces in the Civil War, Union soldiers visited the Hermitage.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
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They established hermitages and monasteries in traditionally pagan sites and occasionally suffered persecution by the local inhabitants.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
Lizz Pickard of Colorado is staying at one of the hermitages at Solas Bride this week, the latest of several visits.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 1, 2023
These served as hermitages for certain high-minded urban refugees and as vacation properties for others.
From New York Times ● Oct. 7, 2021
His companions were genuine lay brothers, able to lead him through the marshes and waterways to isolated hermitages and priories, where he would be able to plan his next moves.
From BBC ● Dec. 26, 2020
Some evil has to be done with the good, unless we’re going back to pillories and hermitages, to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.
From The Carleton Case by Ellery H. Clark
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.