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• nun
  nun

  noun

  a woman member of a religious order, especially one bound by vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
• nūn
  nūn

  noun

  the 25th letter of the Arabic alphabet.
• Nun
  Nun

  noun

  oldest of the ancient Egyptian gods, personifying the primordial ocean from which the world was formed; father of Ra, the sun god.

nun

¹ American  

[nuhn] / nʌn /

noun

1. a woman member of a religious order, especially one bound by vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

2. any of various birds, especially a domestic variety of pigeon.

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nun ² American  

[noon, noon] / nun, nʊn /

noun

1. the 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

2. the consonant sound represented by this letter.

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nūn ³ American  

[noon] / nʊn /

noun

1. the 25th letter of the Arabic alphabet.

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Nun ⁴ American  

[noon] / nun /

Also Nu

noun

Egyptian Religion.

1. oldest of the ancient Egyptian gods, personifying the primordial ocean from which the world was formed; father of Ra, the sun god.

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nun ¹ British  

/ nʌn /

noun

1. a female member of a religious order

2. (sometimes capital) a variety of domestic fancy pigeon usually having a black-and-white plumage with a ridged peak or cowl of short white feathers

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nun ² British  

/ nʊn /

noun

1. the 14th letter in the Hebrew alphabet (נ or, at the end of a word, ן), transliterated as n

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nun Cultural  

1. A female member of a religious order, living in a convent, whose work is confined to the convent. The term is also applied broadly to other female members of religious orders (“sisters”) who often live outside their convents and work as teachers, nurses, social workers, or administrators.

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Other Word Forms

• nunlike
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of nun¹

before 900; Middle English, Old English nunne < Medieval Latin nonna, feminine of nonnus monk

Origin of nun²

First recorded in 1875–80, nun is from the Hebrew word nūn literally, fish

Origin of nūn³

From Arabic; see origin at nun ², nu ¹

Explanation

A nun is a woman who's dedicated her life to religious observance. Most nuns spend their time praying or meditating and doing service work in their communities. You may picture a Catholic nun when you hear the word nun, but there are nuns of other faiths as well, including Hindus, Lutherans, Jains, and Buddhists. Nuns serve the poor and hungry, sometimes running schools or orphanages, and they have in common a strict dedication to religion. Nun comes from the Old English nunne, and the Late Latin nonna, "nun," originally a generic word for addressing an older person.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

nun Nun

And then there are the Sherpas — Namgyal and his wife, Pasang, a former Buddhist nun, who hail from the Khumbu region of Nepal and live on the property with Higdon.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026

“The word nun was not in my vocabulary,” she said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

But she would end up in a totally different role - first a nun and now, 10 years to the day after her death in an earthquake, a would-be saint.

From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2026

"Up until the 2000s you would see maybe a nun or a priest quietly outside the clinic, but since about 2013 we were seeing groups like 40 Days for Life protesting," she says.

From BBC ● Mar. 15, 2026

“Please share it with the class,” the nun demanded.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

For 22-year-old Seerat Hafiz, known online as Yikvot or Nun Chai with Jiya, satire and humour are her tools of choice.

From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2025

"People ask why am I in Haiti?" says Nun.

From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2024

“The Nun II” scared up $14.7 million in its sophomore outing for a North American cumulative of $56.5 million, while “A Haunting in Venice” opened to $14.5 million, according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2023

“The Nun 2,” a spinoff from the studio’s lucrative “Conjuring” franchise, grossed $14.7 million.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 17, 2023

Were the rumors true that he had walked on water against the Nacogdoches Dragons and had simply flown across the field like the Flying Nun against the Texarkana Tigers?

From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger

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