cloister
Americannoun
-
cloisters
plural
-
a covered walk, especially in a religious institution, having an open arcade or colonnade usually opening onto a courtyard.
-
a courtyard, especially in a religious institution, bordered with such walks.
-
a place of religious seclusion, as a monastery or convent.
-
any quiet, secluded place.
-
life in a monastery or convent.
verb (used with object)
-
cloisters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
cloistered,
past participle, past
-
cloistering
present participle
-
to confine in a monastery or convent.
-
to confine in retirement; seclude.
-
to furnish with a cloister or covered walk.
-
to convert into a monastery or convent.
noun
-
a covered walk, usually around a quadrangle in a religious institution, having an open arcade or colonnade on the inside and a wall on the outside
-
(sometimes plural) a place of religious seclusion, such as a monastery
-
life in a monastery or convent
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
cloistersimple
-
cloisterssimple
-
have cloisteredperfect
-
has cloisteredperfect
-
am cloisteringprogressive
-
are cloisteringprogressive
-
is cloisteringprogressive
-
have been cloisteringperfect progressive
-
has been cloisteringperfect progressive
Past
-
cloisteredsimple
-
had cloisteredperfect
-
was cloisteringprogressive
-
were cloisteringprogressive
-
had been cloisteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cloister
1250–1300; Middle English cloistre < Anglo-French, Old French, blend of cloison partition ( see cloisonné) and clostre (< Latin claustrum barrier ( Late Latin: enclosed place); see claustrum)
Explanation
A cloister is an enclosed garden, usually surrounded by covered walkways. Because such spaces are often featured in buildings that house religious orders, cloister can be used to mean "monastery" or "convent." In enclosed religious orders, monks and nuns withdraw from society to devote themselves to prayer and contemplation. In order to provide them with access to the outdoors while protecting them from contact with the secular world, the cloister became a common element of convents and monasteries. When used as a verb, cloister generally loses its religious connotation and means "to seclude" or "isolate." Don't get a lunch detention or you'll be cloistered in the classroom while all the other kids are running around outside.
Vocabulary lists containing cloister
A Midsummer Night's Dream
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"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act III
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Case Closed: Clud, Clus
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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.
See Examples For:
There the nun discovers her own inner sleuth, and unexpectedly finds joy in life outside the cloister.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
A row of vaults seem to be supported by 14 superslim columns but are, in fact, suspended from the ceiling and give the room the sheltered quality of a cloister.
From New York Times ● May 3, 2024
The centre is described as a series of red brick "pavilions" housing care and social spaces, stitched together by a central timber "cloister".
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2023
To communicate with volunteers and priests, the sisters normally spoke through a turn, a barrel-shaped revolving cabinet used to pass goods into the monastery without violating the cloister.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 19, 2023
The conversation in the rotunda was, of course, all about the Tonist cloister tragedy.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
Antoni Gaudí’s Basilica Sagrada Família contains familiar components of that style: a Latin Cross layout, Gothic arches, cloisters, representations of saints and apostles, rose windows.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
It offers contemporary art, scary medieval weapons and Gothic cloisters.
From New York Times ● Mar. 29, 2023
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry came to life in various locations, including Durham Cathedral's ancient cloisters in the franchise's first big screen outing.
From BBC ● Nov. 20, 2021
I was thrilled to get inside to feel and photograph all of this, as well as the cathedral’s cloisters, in the solitude of the faintest first rays.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 12, 2021
He was served afternoon tea sitting on the grass in the cloisters.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Where Tumblr-ites dreamed of the cloistered quads and moody libraries of Princeton in the 2010s, TikTok-ers now obsess over the elaborate rituals of University of Alabama sororities.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
Wyle: I’m not that aware of it because I feel mostly cloistered once we start production on Soundstages 21 and 22.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
He was born into the cloistered art world as the son of a German Jewish art dealer who fled Berlin in the 1930s and restarted his business in London.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 11, 2026
Journalists who work for institutions are so cloistered and shut down at this point.
From Slate ● Nov. 17, 2025
Having acceded to her husband’s indulgent discipline throughout Ernest’s childhood and adolescence, Gunda now put her foot down, insisting that he attend St. Olaf College, a cloistered Lutheran institution in frigid Northfield, Minnesota.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Others focus on exploring values or on navigating the dynamics of a family-owned business, cloistering the kids in hotel conference rooms or Aspen compounds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026
Both the paintings and the small gallery holding them feel cloistering yet claustrophobic.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 19, 2022
Also, reframe this into a gift of time—during this period of conscientious cloistering, as an opportunity to pursue talents and to “cultivate your garden.”
From Slate ● Mar. 19, 2020
Even as a child he was a bibliomaniac, spending his waking hours flipping pages “stiff as cartilage,” deciphering marginalia and cloistering himself in a reality of his own making.
From New York Times ● Jun. 9, 2014
I hang up and run to the bathroom, steamy and cloistering.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
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.
