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
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
The hermitage was his summer hideaway, a place for monthslong vacations with family and friends.
From New York Times ● Mar. 15, 2024
The south peak of Sceilg Mhichíl is 218m high and was used as a hermitage by monks, with the 183m-high lower peak containing the main monastic site.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2022
For it was in this pool that the Hermit looked when he wanted to know what was going on in the world outside the green walls of his hermitage.
From "The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis
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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
In 1892, the Finnish Art Society sent her to St. Petersburg, Russia, to paint copies of works in the Hermitage and then, in 1894, to Vienna and Florence to copy old masters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 3, 2026
Police confirmed an investigation has been launched into the death of the girl, who attended Hermitage Academy.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2025
“People come here for silent, self-guided retreats,” said Katee Armstrong, guest ministry specialist at New Camaldoli Hermitage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2025
Alfred Jackson grew up the son of an enslaved cook at the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s Tennessee plantation.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
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These ascetics attracted followers, and as a result monasteries and hermitages flourished in less hospitable areas.
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 Clark, Ellery H.
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.