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bonze

American  
[bonz] / bɒnz /

noun

  1. a Buddhist monk, especially of Japan or China.


bonze British  
/ bɒnz /

noun

  1. a Chinese or Japanese Buddhist priest or monk

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of bonze

1580–90; < Middle French < Portuguese bonzo or New Latin bonzius < Japanese bonsō, bonzō ordinary priest ( bon- ordinary + priest < Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese f án-sēng ); or < dialectal Japanese bonzu for bōzu priest

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.

See Examples For:

“Hopefully it’s soon,” Elway said Friday night at a ceremony dedicating a bonze likeness of Bowlen outside Sports Authority Field.

From Washington Times Nov. 2, 2015

No doubt the differences between one constructivist painting and another would seem just as nugatory to a bonze.

From Time Magazine Archive

To his mission, Tri Quang brings an intelligence and a toughness that have not been seen in a South Vietnamese leader since Ngo Dinh Diem, whose downfall the ascetic bonze triggered in 1963.

From Time Magazine Archive

It took him seven years—years in which ostensibly he lived the life of an ordinary, if exceptionally austere, bonze.

From Time Magazine Archive

He’s painted himself in the style of a bonze, looking a little bit Japanese.

From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman

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