canoness

[kan-uh-nis]

noun

1. a member of a Christian community of women living under a rule but not under a vow.

canoness

/ ˈkænənɪs /

noun

1. RC Church a woman belonging to any one of several religious orders and living under a rule but not under a vow

Gender Note

What's the difference between canoness and canon? See -ess.

Word History and Origins

Origin of canoness¹

First recorded in 1675–85; canon ² + -ess

Example Sentences

The abbess of Quedlingberg, who with the four great dignitaries of her chapter, the prioress, the deaness, the sub-chantress, and senior canoness, had that week come to Strasburg to consult the university upon a case of conscience relating to their placket-holes———was ill all the night.

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This duty fell chiefly upon Mrs. Harrington, who acquitted herself of it as creditably as any one could have done, and who established a claim upon the Professor's gratitude by talking with as much propriety as if she had been herself a canoness.

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Thus, on 17th January 1861, in the odour of sanctity, died Lola Montez, Countess of Landsfeld, Baroness Rosenthal, Canoness of the Order of St. Theresa, sometime ruler of the kingdom of Bavaria, in the forty-third year of her age.

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She was made a canoness of the aristocratic order of St. Theresa, of which the Queen was the head.

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He was educated in France by a sister of his mother, the Countess of Grandnesnil, an ancient canoness, a noble lady, who was a second mother to the young Marquis after death had borne away his own.

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Related Words

• sister