cloister
Americannoun
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a covered walk, especially in a religious institution, having an open arcade or colonnade usually opening onto a courtyard.
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a courtyard, especially in a religious institution, bordered with such walks.
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a place of religious seclusion, as a monastery or convent.
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any quiet, secluded place.
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life in a monastery or convent.
verb (used with object)
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to confine in a monastery or convent.
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to confine in retirement; seclude.
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to furnish with a cloister or covered walk.
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to convert into a monastery or convent.
noun
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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
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(sometimes plural) a place of religious seclusion, such as a monastery
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life in a monastery or convent
verb
Other Word Forms
- cloister-like adjective
- cloisterless adjective
- cloisterlike adjective
Etymology
Origin of cloister
1250–1300; Middle English cloistre < Anglo-French, Old French, blend of cloison partition ( cloisonné ) and clostre (< Latin claustrum barrier ( Late Latin: enclosed place); claustrum )
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.
Even so, she didn’t live in a cloister.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 27, 2025
A chocolate kitchen, chocolate serving room, chocolate cloister and full chocolate staff are optional.
From BBC • Dec. 10, 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
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — In 1964, hoping to erase its image as a privileged cloister for white rich families, Wesleyan University contacted 400 Black high school students from around the country to persuade them to apply.
From New York Times • Jan. 15, 2023
One was at the north end of the Honeycomb, above the place where the tree roots formed a kind of cloister in the burrow.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
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.
