Jump To:

• hermitage
  hermitage

  noun

  the habitation of a hermit.
• Hermitage
  Hermitage

  noun

  an art museum in St Petersburg, originally a palace built by Catherine the Great

hermitage

American  

[hur-mi-tij, er-mi-tahzh] / ˈhɜr mɪ tɪdʒ, ˌɛr mɪˈtɑʒ /

noun

hermitages plural

1. the habitation of a hermit.

2. any secluded place of residence or habitation; retreat; hideaway.

3. (initial capital letter) a palace in Leningrad built by Catherine II and now used as an art museum.

---

hermitage ¹ British  

/ ˈhɜːmɪtɪdʒ /

noun

1. the abode of a hermit

2. any place where a person may live in seclusion; retreat

---

Hermitage ² British  

/ ˈhɜːmɪtɪdʒ /

noun

1. an art museum in St Petersburg, originally a palace built by Catherine the Great

---

Hermitage ³ British  

/ ˈhɜːmɪtɪdʒ /

noun

1. a full-bodied red or white wine from the Rhône valley at Tain-l'Ermitage, in SE France

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• hermitages
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

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

“I thought we can make money if this place goes from terrible to bad,” said Bill Browder, an Anglo-American financier whose firm Hermitage Capital Management ran the biggest foreign investment fund in Russia.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 26, 2025

Both the archaeologist and the Hermitage insist all their finds remain in Crimea as they are transferred to the Eastern Crimean Museum in Kerch.

From BBC • Dec. 25, 2025

A foreman, he ran the Hermitage cotton gin—an important position on the farm, where cotton was a cash crop.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis