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; nun ², nu ¹

Example Sentences

At the other end, three nuns from Chicago quietly chatter, favoring passers-by with beneficent smiles.

From Barron's

"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

José María Zuloaga gathers a motley outfit of army irregulars—it includes released Native American prisoners and a sharpshooting nun—to pursue the captive.

From The Wall Street Journal

She won the 1996 Best Actress Oscar for "Dead Man Walking", where she played a nun who supports a man sentenced to death.

From Barron's

Kate presided over a mahogany séance table, dressed simply in a black silk gown with a gold cross around her neck almost like a kind of Spiritualist nun.

From Literature

Related Words

• sister