ascetic
Americannoun
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a person who dedicates their life to a pursuit of contemplative ideals and practices extreme self-denial or self-mortification for religious reasons.
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a person who leads an austerely simple life, especially one who abstains from the normal pleasures of life or shuns material satisfaction.
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(in the early Christian church) a monk; hermit.
adjective
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relating to asceticism, the doctrine that one can reach a high spiritual state through the practice of extreme self-denial or self-mortification.
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rigorously abstinent; austere.
an ascetic existence.
- Antonyms:
- self-indulgent
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exceedingly strict or severe in religious exercises or self-mortification.
- Synonyms:
- fanatic
noun
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a person who practises great self-denial and austerities and abstains from worldly comforts and pleasures, esp for religious reasons
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(in the early Christian Church) a monk
adjective
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rigidly abstinent or abstemious; austere
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of or relating to ascetics or asceticism
-
intensely rigorous in religious austerities
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ascetic
First recorded in 1640–50; from Greek askētikós “subject to rigorous exercise, hardworking,” equivalent to askē- ( see ascesis) + -tikos adjective suffix; see -tic
Explanation
Want to live an ascetic lifestyle? Then you better ditch the flat panel TV and fuzzy slippers. To be ascetic, you learn to live without; it's all about self-denial. Ascetic is derived from the Greek asketes, meaning “monk,” or “hermit.” Later that became asketikos, meaning “rigorously self-disciplined,” which gives us the Modern English ascetic. Ascetic can be a noun: a person with incredible self-discipline and the ability to deprive herself, or an adjective that describes such a people or their lifestyle.
Vocabulary lists containing ascetic
100 SAT Words Beginning with "A"
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The Scarlet Letter
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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.
Ascetic, observant and karmic are three words that describe my essence.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 4, 2023
Ascetic in outline, but suffused with a warm humanity, their pieces are studded with minor epiphanies on the way to a larger sense of emotional fulfilment.
From The Guardian • Jun. 10, 2010
Ascetic Bachelor Gomes, an oldtime Army man, neither smokes nor drinks.
From Time Magazine Archive
June Wilson Staunton, Va. After reading "Portrait of an Ascetic Despot" I feel, for the first time, sorrow instead of hatred for the Ayatullah Khomeini.
From Time Magazine Archive
I speak from report,—for what is cookery to a leguminous-eating Ascetic?
From The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals. Vol. 2 by Prothero, Rowland E. (Rowland Edmund), Baron Ernle
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.
