friar
Americannoun
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friars
plural
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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:
In 1606, Spain sent a friar to the Potano village to establish a mission.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
Or that Roger Bacon, an Oxford friar and one of the first to write about the optics of eyeglasses, was imprisoned for attempting to invent them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
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
A friar who knew of his struggle encouraged him to start dating a woman, but it didn’t feel natural.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2024
“I am Brother Luke, a wandering friar, newly come to St. Mark’s. I have brought thee food, and, cause ’tis Friday, fish.”
From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli
Just out of curiosity, I did a bit of research on Cambridge and found that Franciscan friars laid the first water pipes in 1325, and the modern water system went into the ground in 1855.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
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
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
His given name was Johann, but the friars changed it to Gregor Johann Mendel.
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.
