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
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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:
In recent decades, however, there has been a greater tendency for people to cloister inside.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
A chocolate kitchen, chocolate serving room, chocolate cloister and full chocolate staff are optional.
From BBC ● Dec. 10, 2023
Fourteen years later, Catholic women in Los Angeles raised funds to build the sisters a new cloister, chapel and office complex on the same site, designed by celebrated architect Wallace Neff.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 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
When Michelangelo was halfway across the cloister, I came to my senses.
From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz
It offers contemporary art, scary medieval weapons and Gothic cloisters.
From New York Times ● Mar. 29, 2023
Gloucester's historic cathedral cloisters were transformed into the corridors of Hogwarts for the first two films and the Gothic building's lavatorium - a washing place - also features several times.
From BBC ● Nov. 20, 2021
Finally, as we’re not all venturing out of our pandemic cloisters just yet, here’s a fun Italian red to order online for your next pizza night.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 12, 2021
Once, when playing Shakespeare’s Richard III, he pasted pages of the script to pillars in the school’s cloisters and spent the performance running between them.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 13, 2019
He was served afternoon tea sitting on the grass in the cloisters.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
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
A vast blaze has torn through the historic Bernaga Monastery in northern Italy, the Italian fire service said Sunday, forcing the evacuation of 22 cloistered nuns.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2025
Yet his work has never stayed cloistered within academia.
From Salon ● May 28, 2025
She had a normal life that did not include being cloistered in a bubble for fourteen hours a day with her sick teenage daughter.
From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
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
Others are signing up for defense classes or are cloistering themselves.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 19, 2023
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
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.
