postulant
Americannoun
-
a candidate, especially for admission into a religious order.
-
a person who asks or applies for something.
noun
Other Word Forms
- postulancy noun
- postulantship noun
Etymology
Origin of postulant
1750–60; < French < Latin postulant- (stem of postulāns ), present participle of postulāre to ask for, claim, require
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.
If that all goes well, three months later, she enters the postulant stage, at which she can start wearing the makeup but is not yet given a veil.
From Los Angeles Times • May 25, 2023
While a postulant at the convent, she began to have seizures.
From Washington Times • May 28, 2019
Her sense of vocation grew only gradually, strengthened by the years spent with the community, first as a novice and then as a postulant, or candidate to join the religious order.
From The Wall Street Journal • Aug. 13, 2015
Born in 1905 and soon orphaned, the real Maria entered a convent as a postulant and was assigned to tutor the family of Captain von Trapp, a widower more than twice her age.
From Time • Mar. 2, 2015
“I know she’s too young to be a postulant, but there’s got to be a convent somewhere that she could go to.”
From "The Dead and the Gone" by Susan Beth Pfeffer
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.
