Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A community of persons, especially monks, bound by vows to a religious life and often living in partial or complete seclusion.
- noun The dwelling place of such a community.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A house or other place of residence occupied in common by persons seeking religious seclusion from the world: commonly applied to such a house exclusively used by monks.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A house of religious retirement, or of secusion from ordinary temporal concerns, especially for monks; -- more rarely applied to such a house for females.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Place of residence for members of a
religious community (especiallymonks ).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the residence of a religious community
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Originally the term monastery designated, both in the East and in the West, the dwelling either of a solitary or of a community; while caenobium, congregatio, fraternitas, asceterion, etc. were applied solely to the houses of communities.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1: Aachen-Assize 1840-1916 1913
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"The film does not depict a monastery, but it transforms itself into a monastery, because a monastery is a place where, through the rhythm of time, which is very strict, and through [the monks '] confinement, the spiritual space is opened up for them."
A Different Stripe: 2007
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"The film does not depict a monastery, but it transforms itself into a monastery, because a monastery is a place where, through the rhythm of time, which is very strict, and through [the monks '] confinement, the spiritual space is opened up for them."
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You may think that living in a monastery is a sweet life.
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“Mr. Burman,” Father Boniface said, “to answer your question, this monastery is two hundred years old, but a mere infant compared to the ones in Europe.”
Sometimes its Hard to Forgive Matthew A. Hamilton 2010
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The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church received with astonishment and regret news about brutal violence toward patients of the substance abuse in monastery Crna Reka in the Rasko-Prizrenska Eparchy.
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The monastery is one of the country's oldest and most prominent monasteries and is a major tourist attraction.
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Gormley visited the Shaolin monastery and the small living areas of the monks, as well as dwellings of factory workers that he saw there, reminded him of shelving, or coffins.
Jillian Burt: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Sutra Jillian Burt 2010
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Then the monastery is infused with the sounds of the women's spirituality.
Sensual Encounters: Monastic Women and Spirituality in Medieval Germany 2008
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When Adelheid of Gotteszell wrestled with the devil during her prayers in the dormitory, she was tortured and thrown from side-to-side, her outbursts were heard by the entire monastery from the dormitory to the refectory. 146
Sensual Encounters: Monastic Women and Spirituality in Medieval Germany 2008
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