refectory
Americannoun
-
refectories
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of refectory
1475–85; < Late Latin refectōrium, equivalent to Latin refec-, combining form of reficere to renew ( see refect) + -tōrium -tory 2
Explanation
A fancy word for a dining hall, or a place for communal meals, is a refectory. It is usually used to describe a dining hall in a religious institution, like where monks eat together. The word refectory comes from the Latin word reficere which means "to restore, renew." A meal together is a great way of restoring unity to a group. Nothing renews community like a great dinner, and the conversation that occurs around it. Lunch in your school's refectory? Maybe not so much.
Vocabulary lists containing refectory
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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Jane Eyre
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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.
See Examples For:
The oak refectory tables and benches, crafted by Robert "Mouseman" Thompson and featuring his trademark mice carvings, had been donated by former pupils.
From BBC ● Nov. 23, 2025
What is the purpose of a room called a refectory?
From Slate ● Dec. 18, 2023
There, in the abbey’s refectory, the colors of the 16th-century “Last Supper” fresco by Andrea del Sarto are still bright, unlike those of Leonardo’s famous “Last Supper” in Milan.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 23, 2022
The painting, in oil on canvas, was commissioned by her own convent of Santa Caterina; once completed, it was hung on the nuns’ refectory wall.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 19, 2019
He and Werner eat their first meal in their starchy new uniforms at a long wooden table in the refectory.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Designers are conjuring all kinds of nonkitchen-y arenas, like the refectories of old boarding schools, a signature of Christopher Peacock, the English-born kitchen designer once known for his all-white offerings.
From New York Times ● Oct. 2, 2017
Building after building, mysterious and broken, corridors, halls, refectories, cells; the dwelling of a faith so alien that I could not reconstruct the life that gave it being.
From The ninth vibration and other stories by L. Adams (Lily Adams) Beck
Even in large villages they have kissing-games at the children's parties, in the church vestries and refectories; and as a little boy Lemuel had taken part in such games.
From The Minister's Charge by William Dean Howells
The old men placed at the head of the cooking business and of the refectories of the servants praise the cleanliness of the streets, the houses, the vessels, the garments, the workshops and the warehouses.
From Ideal Commonwealths by Sir Saint Thomas More
In the four refectories, where the soldiers dine, twelve in a mess, they are regularly served with soup, bouilli, a plate of vegetables, and a pint of unadulterated wine.
From Paris as It Was and as It Is by Francis W. Blagdon
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.
