bonze

[ bonz ]

noun
  1. a Buddhist monk, especially of Japan or China.

Origin of bonze

1
1580–90; <Middle French <Portuguese bonzo or New Latin bonzius<Japanese bonsō, bonzō ordinary priest (bon- ordinary + priest <Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese fán-sēng); or <dialectal Japanese bonzu for bōzu priest

Words Nearby bonze

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use bonze in a sentence

  • A priest, or bonze, handed us some little tapers for us to light and offer to his divinity.

  • Over this pit is an armchair, to which the deceased bonze is fastened in full costume.

  • But one young bonze named "Lift-the-Kettle" (after a passage in the Sanscrit classics) had rigidly kept the rules.

    Japanese Fairy World | William Elliot Griffis
  • In the eyes of the people Xavier was merely a new kind of bonze, and they listened to him with the greatest attention.

    The Jesuits, 1534-1921 | Thomas J. Campbell
  • He was conducted by his bearers to the largest temple in the city, where a yellow-robed bonze was in waiting to receive him.

    In Eastern Seas | J. J. Smith

British Dictionary definitions for bonze

bonze

/ (bɒnz) /


noun
  1. a Chinese or Japanese Buddhist priest or monk

Origin of bonze

1
C16: from French, from Portuguese bonzo, from Japanese bonsō, from Sanskrit bon + priest or monk

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012