Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The superior of a convent.
- noun Used as a title for such a person.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A female superior of a convent of nuns, regularly in the same religious orders in which the monks are governed by an abbot; also, a superior of canonesses.
- noun A title retained in Hanover, Würtemberg, Brunswick, and Schleswig-Holstein by the lady superiors of the Protestant seminaries and sisterhoods to which the property of certain convents was transferred at the Reformation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A female superior or governess of a nunnery, or convent of nuns, having the same authority over the nuns which the abbots have over the monks. See
abbey .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the superior of a group of nuns
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Later in that same article, Coffman notes that the use of fish in a spiritual fast was cause for great culinary creativity in the Medieval kitchen, and a French abbess is credited for the creation of the divine dish which I hesitate to categorize as “fish soup” called bouillabaisse.
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Moreover, many a time and in many things I observed their customs, for fear of worse, and being asked by the chief of the ladies, her whom they call abbess, if
The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio 1344
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Although the abbess was a person exactly after his own heart, my education as a pensioner devolved much on an excellent old mother who had adopted the tenets of the Jansenists, with perhaps a still further tendency towards the reformed doctrines, than those of Port Royal.
Redgauntlet 2008
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The abbess is the only person who knows precisely the location of the service, knowledge which was passed down for one thousand years from abbess to abbess.
Archive 2006-02-01 adamosf 2006
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The abbess is the only person who knows precisely the location of the service, knowledge which was passed down for one thousand years from abbess to abbess.
The Eight adamosf 2006
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In this instance the abbess was the head of all; and this accounts for Bede's calling the house a nunnery.
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The abbess was a baroness _ex officio_, and the revenue at the dissolution of the monasteries was £1084.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon" Various
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At Fontevrault (founded 1099) and with the Bridgettines (1346), the abbess was the superior of monks as well as nuns, though with the Gilbertines (1146) it was the prior who ruled over both.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 10: Mass Music-Newman 1840-1916 1913
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At the head of the community is a superior often called the abbess, appointed for life by the chapter, at least outside Italy, for in
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 11: New Mexico-Philip 1840-1916 1913
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In European history the abbess is a notable figure.
The Religions of Japan From the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji William Elliot Griffis 1885
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