nunnery
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of nunnery
First recorded in 1225–75, nunnery is from the Middle English word nonnerie. See nun 1, -ery
Vocabulary lists containing nunnery
"The Tragedy of Hamlet," Vocabulary from Act 3
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Selection Vocabulary 4, Unit 2
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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.
Meanwhile Philippa, knowing that “visionaries are ungovernable,” fears that Barton’s presence in her nunnery portends catastrophe.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
Get me to a nunnery, but I’m weary of presenting filmland’s biggest honor to the kind of movie people rarely want to watch twice.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 22, 2026
She later founded a nunnery in India focused on giving women in Tibetan Buddhism some of the opportunities reserved for monks.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 21, 2024
Ms. Lhamo yelled at the knocked-down nun, looking straight into her eyes outside a whitewashed temple in the Druk Amitabha nunnery on a hill overlooking Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.
From New York Times • Feb. 26, 2023
“Then they will tear me to pieces there! My honor sullied, I will be dismissed from court and packed off to a nunnery somewhere, never to marry!”
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
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.
