Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The monastic life or system, especially as practiced in a monastery.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The corporate life of religious communities under the vows of poverty, celibacy, and obedience to a superior; the monastic system or condition.
  • noun The condition or state of living like a monk, in religious retirement from the world.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The monastic life, system, or condition.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the religious practice of renouncing all worldly pursuits in order to fully devote one's life to spiritual work

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun asceticism as a form of religious life; usually conducted in a community under a common rule and characterized by celibacy and poverty and obedience

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Greek μοναχός (a solitary person).

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Examples

  • Early Irish monasticism is usually associated with its rigour and has been known to be compared to the tradition of the Egyptian Desert Fathers.

    Early and Mediaeval Irish Ecclesiastical Art 2009

  • I wish that Mr. Montefiore had expanded his book a little some of his most interesting bits are relegated to footnotes, and told us something about the origins of the synagogue and of monasticism, which is essential to the story of Jerusalem, but clearly a non-Jewish phenomenon.

    The City With the Big Ego Paul Levy 2011

  • JOSEPH KOTERSKI, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: I suspect that what he's doing is thinking all the way back to St. Benedict, who was a 6th century individual, who's the founder of Western monasticism, that is the beginning of monasteries in Europe.

    CNN Transcript Apr 19, 2005 2005

  • This movement or family of traditions is called monasticism, literally meaning, "dwelling alone," and was established during the early church as a protest against the increasing worldliness of the church.

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] 2010

  • This movement or family of traditions is called monasticism, literally meaning, "dwelling alone," and was established during the early church as a protest against the increasing worldliness of the church.

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] 2010

  • This movement or family of traditions is called monasticism, literally meaning, "dwelling alone," and was established during the early church as a protest against the increasing worldliness of the church.

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • In this way, travel can be a kind of monasticism on the move: On the road, we often live more simply even when staying in a luxury hotel, with no more possessions than we can carry, and surrendering ourselves to chance.

    Jason Silva: Oh to Wanderfly (and How It'll Help You Travel) Jason Silva 2010

  • In this way, travel can be a kind of monasticism on the move: On the road, we often live more simply even when staying in a luxury hotel, with no more possessions than we can carry, and surrendering ourselves to chance.

    Jason Silva: Oh to Wanderfly (and How It'll Help You Travel) Jason Silva 2010

  • A friend of mine used to comment that he wished he'd known that marriage would be a kind of monasticism, and asked us to call him "Brother John".

    The dreariest subject in the world: How to spice up your marriage. Ann Althouse 2007

  • State as the expression of her ‘other-worldly’ sentiment, then monasticism has indeed conquered in her; but if we see, in the manner in which she to-day maintains this attitude, an essential secularisation, then it is precisely the Jesuitic monasticism which is to be made answerable therefor.

    Monasticism: Its Ideals and History and The Confessions of St. Augustine 1851-1930 1911

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