monks

Cultural  

1. Men under religious vows who live in a community and whose work is usually centered on their community, which is called a monastery. Buddhism and Christianity have notable groups of monks. In Christianity, the monks are members of religious orders.

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Example Sentences

They were Zen monks who painted as part of their spiritual training and used that art to express ideas that couldn’t be properly conveyed in words.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 23, 2026

He spent more than a week in Zhengzhou, China, studying kung fu and meditating with Shaolin monks.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

Services across the river were recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, with Benedictine monks from Birkenhead Priory running the first regular ferries to Liverpool's markets in the 12th Century.

From BBC • Mar. 29, 2026

Some of the buildings at the Thahtay Kyaung monastery, where saffron-clad monks cleared rubble from the wreckage by hand in the days after the quake, have been razed.

From Barron's • Mar. 26, 2026

All sorts of people went about their business—tradesmen and soldiers and officials and many monks.

From "A Single Shard" by Linda Sue Park