mendicant
Americanadjective
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begging; practicing begging; living on alms.
-
pertaining to or characteristic of a beggar.
noun
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a person who lives by begging; beggar.
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a member of any of several orders of friars that originally forbade ownership of property, subsisting mostly on alms.
adjective
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begging
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(of a member of a religious order) dependent on alms for sustenance
mendicant friars
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characteristic of a beggar
noun
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a mendicant friar
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a less common word for beggar
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of mendicant
1425–75; late Middle English < Latin mendīcant- (stem of mendīcāns ), present participle of mendīcāre to beg, equivalent to mendīc ( us ) beggarly, needy + -ant- -ant
Explanation
People who live off begging can be called mendicants. However, you probably wouldn't call your kids mendicants, even though they beg you for stuff, because the word mendicant also implies extreme poverty. The noun mendicant can also refer to a man belonging to a religious order, such as the Franciscan Friars — who do not own personal property but live together in a monastery and survive off alms donated by others. As an adjective, mendicant describes someone who lives such an existence.
Vocabulary lists containing mendicant
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 14–18
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "M"
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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.
The Order of the Hermits of St Augustine was established in 1256 when the papacy объединed several hermit groups from central Italy into a single mendicant order.
From Science Daily • Feb. 2, 2026
Joining the Order of Saint Augustine, a mendicant order of the Catholic Church, Mendel was able to spend his life as a monk and therefore not have to worry about his livelihood.
From Salon • Jun. 6, 2023
Clare doesn’t understand why this son of a silk merchant is wandering around like a nutty mendicant, but she recognizes what they have in common and suspects he has much to teach her.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 3, 2021
It is a mendicant reduced to hoping to “extend and pretend” forever.
From Washington Post • Jun. 19, 2015
Then they set out upon the road again, slumped and cowled and shivering in their rags like mendicant friars sent forth to find their keep.
From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
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.
