friar
Americannoun
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Roman Catholic Church. a member of a religious order, especially the mendicant orders of Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and Augustinians.
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Printing. a blank or light area on a printed page caused by uneven inking of the plate or type.
noun
Synonym Usage
See monk.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of friar
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English frier, frere “brother,” from Old French frere, from Latin frāter; see brother
Explanation
A friar belongs to a religious order, a group within the Catholic church. A friar is similar to a monk. Friars are like monks in that they are devoted to a religious life. The difference is that a friar lives and works among regular people in society, while a monk lives in a secluded, self-sufficient group of monks. The word friar developed in the thirteenth century from the Old French frere, "brother or friar." The Latin root is frater, or "brother."
Vocabulary lists containing friar
Much Ado About Nothing
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"Culture Clash"
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Medieval Europe - Introductory
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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:
Cesareo, a Franciscan friar, said the "damaged" and "consumed" state of the bones showed that St Francis "gave himself completely" to his life's work.
From Barron's ● Feb. 22, 2026
One of the earliest collections of Augustinian biographies she studied was written by a Florentine friar in the 1320s.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 2, 2026
The friar, writes Mr. Restall, portrayed Columbus as “a flawed but heroic agent of God.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026
A theologian who later became a Dominican friar, he revolutionised Church teachings with his 1971 book Theology of Liberation.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2024
“But I tell you that I wasn’t there. All this that I am telling you was told to me by that friar I was telling you of, like I tdl you.”
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Coronado, a nobleman around 30 years old, set out in early 1540 with 350 Spaniards, 1,500 indigenous allies and five friars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
"Direct contact with nature gave the friars legitimacy, special spiritual powers and access to valuable natural resources including timber, crops and wild animals," Dr. Ilko says.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 2, 2026
The lantern-making tradition evolved from nighttime processions held by Spanish friars during the 300-plus years of Madrid's colonial rule, the city government said.
From Barron's ● Dec. 19, 2025
It was closely associated with the Spanish conquest, Spanish friars acting as de facto colonial administrators and the church becoming a big landowner.
From BBC ● May 7, 2025
But the friars had fallen out of favor with Emperor Joseph II in 1783.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
