monastery

[mon-uh-ster-ee]

noun

plural

monasteries 

1. a house or place of residence occupied by a community of persons, especially monks, living in seclusion under religious vows.

   Synonyms: lamasery, friary, priory, abbey, cloister

2. the community of persons living in such a place.

monastery

/ ˌmɒnəˈstɪərɪəl, ˈmɒnəstərɪ, -strɪ /

noun

1. the residence of a religious community, esp of monks, living in seclusion from secular society and bound by religious vows

Other Word Forms

• monasterial adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of monastery¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Late Latin monastērium, from Late Greek monastḗrion “monk house,” originally, “hermit's cell,” equivalent to monas-, variant stem of monázein “to be alone” + -tērion neuter adjective suffix denoting place; mono-

Word History and Origins

Origin of monastery¹

C15: from Church Latin monastērium, from Late Greek monastērion, from Greek monázein to live alone, from monos alone

Example Sentences

Anthropological analysis showed that the man buried beneath the monastery floor on Margaret Island was in his early twenties.

Read more on Science Daily

One picture of the Vikings, she says, is of them "being raiders and pillagers and attacking monasteries - then they turn into these more peaceful Norse settlers".

Read more on BBC

Ahead of our return to the city, we drive back up the ridge, back through Burguete, the inn still shuttered, and up to Roncesvalles, where the old monastery looms like a sentinel over the pass.

Read more on Salon

Hildegard is best known for the music she produced in her Rhineland German monastery and for the transcriptions of her luminous visions.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Before joining the monastery 19 years ago, he told me, he’d worked as a sailor on Black Sea merchant ships.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal