hermitage
noun
the habitation of a hermit.
hermitage
1
British
/ ˈhɜːmɪtɪdʒ /
noun
-
the abode of a hermit
-
any place where a person may live in seclusion; retreat
Hermitage
2
British
/ ˈhɜːmɪtɪdʒ /
noun
Hermitage
3
British
/ ˈhɜːmɪtɪdʒ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hermitage
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Old French; see hermit, eremite, -age
Explanation
Your summer cabin deep in the woods where you go to think about how funny life is sometimes? If you want to sound fancy, it could be called a hermitage, a dwelling removed from civilization. The noun hermitage has origins in the French word hermite, meaning “hermit,” a person who lives alone, far from society. Hermitage can describe the place where a hermit lives, or a dwelling occupied by an isolated religious group that prefers solitude. But the word is likely to be used more broadly to describe a secluded or remote dwelling, a place of solitude, where you won’t run into a neighbor while mowing the lawn in the backyard.
Vocabulary lists containing hermitage
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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:
The manuscript opens with the life of Giovanni of Florence, who built the Augustinian hermitage of Santa Lucia in Larniano with help from local farmers.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 2, 2026
An L.A. artist whose work I want in every room of my home: My decor is very simple and minimal because I like my home to feel like a hermitage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2023
He continues to be struck by the emotional effect the island has on those who visit the monastery and hermitage.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2022
She came to Solas Bhride this year for a weeklong stay in its hermitage.
From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2022
It was like a forgotten hermitage — the cave hidden beneath the growth, the strange fertility goddess statue of Our Ladybird with her tattered Miss Miss sash in place.
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
Even at the New Camaldoli Hermitage, a Benedictine monastery above Lucia, the road’s reopening and coming summer season have made a difference.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
A senior scholar at the Hermitage, Russia's largest art museum in St Petersburg, he has since 1999 overseen the museum's excavations of Myrmekion, an ancient Greek settlement founded in Crimea in the 6th Century BC.
From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2026
They are now regular visitors to the grand Hermitage Museum, housed in the former palace of the Tsars.
From Barron's ● Feb. 18, 2026
“I thought we can make money if this place goes from terrible to bad,” said Bill Browder, an Anglo-American financier whose firm Hermitage Capital Management ran the biggest foreign investment fund in Russia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
Following Jackson’s death, the Hermitage was taken over by Andrew Jackson Jr. and his wife, Sarah.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
They established hermitages and monasteries in traditionally pagan sites and occasionally suffered persecution by the local inhabitants.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
Lizz Pickard of Colorado is staying at one of the hermitages at Solas Bride this week, the latest of several visits.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 1, 2023
Reclusion had a long religious history in China, with Buddhist and Daoist monks and priests establishing hermitages, houses of contemplation, in remote sites.
From New York Times ● Oct. 7, 2021
His companions were genuine lay brothers, able to lead him through the marshes and waterways to isolated hermitages and priories, where he would be able to plan his next moves.
From BBC ● Dec. 26, 2020
They have deserted their hermitages and are a very popular order in Italy, devoting themselves especially to preaching and hearing confessions, and form quite a distinct family from the rest.
From The Story of Assisi by Lina Duff Gordon
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
