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
-
(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
- ascetically adverb
- nonascetic noun
- nonascetical adjective
- nonascetically adverb
- preascetic adjective
- pseudoascetic adjective
- pseudoascetical adjective
- pseudoascetically adverb
- unascetic adjective
- unascetically adverb
Etymology
Origin of ascetic
First recorded in 1640–50; from Greek askētikós “subject to rigorous exercise, hardworking,” equivalent to askē- ( ascesis ) + -tikos adjective suffix; -tic
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.
His emaciated face and worn clothes give him an ascetic look.
From New York Times
They float over the savanna like two-story ascetics, peering down at the fray from behind those long lashes.
From New York Times
I still have this weird, useless guilt around shopping, but it helped me get over the ascetic period of my life and realize there’s room everywhere for beauty.
From New York Times
Carter was consistently ethical, abstemious, frugal and ascetic in the White House.
From Washington Post
The Carmelite nuns are a cloistered and ascetic order, living largely in silence.
From BBC
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.
