anchorite

American  

[ang-kuh-rahyt] / ˈæŋ kəˌraɪt /

noun

1. a person who has retired to a solitary place for a life of religious seclusion; hermit.

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anchorite British  

/ ˈæŋkəˌraɪt /

noun

1. a person who lives in seclusion, esp a religious recluse; hermit

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Other Word Forms

• anchoress noun
• anchoritic adjective
• anchoritically adverb
• anchoritism noun

Etymology

Origin of anchorite

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English anc(h)orite, anachorite, ancorite, conflation of Middle English ancre (from Old English ancra, ancer ) and Old French anacorite or Late Latin anachōrīta, anachōrēta, from Late Greek anachōrētḗs, agent noun derivative of anachōreîn “to withdraw” + -tēs agent suffix

Example Sentences

Her subsequent eviction from the Beguines leads to her accepting the Bishop’s offer of sanctuary—as an anchorite, destined to live out her days in a tiny stone outcropping.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 4, 2026

She’d patterned the rooms after anchorite cells, bare stone and lines, so all you had to think about was the communion.

From Slate • Apr. 30, 2022

But Hardulph would not have been a hermit in the colloquial sense; he would have been an anchorite, meaning that he would have been anchored to the church and may have had disciples, Simons explained.

From Washington Post • Jul. 17, 2021

In the 1970s, commercial plywood caught Judd’s eye and he used it in a suite of boxy sculptures that look like a cross between shipping containers and anchorite cells.

From New York Times • Feb. 27, 2020

Sometimes I play chess with one of my colleagues, an anchorite like myself, who suffers from post-polio syndrome.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

Related Words

• abbot
• friar
• priest