Definitions

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

  • noun The 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
  • noun A woman who belongs to a religious order or congregation devoted to active service or meditation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as nun-moth.
  • To cloister up as a nun; confine in or as if in a nunnery.
  • noun A yellowish-brown, neutral, fatty substance produced by an insect found in Yucatan. It melts at 48.9° C. and readily absorbs oxygen from the air.
  • noun The fourteenth letter (ℶ) of the Hebrew alphabet, corresponding to the Greek νῦ and the English n. Its numerical value is 50.
  • noun A woman devoted to a religious life, under a vow of poverty, celibacy, and obedience to a superior: correlative to monk.
  • noun A female recluse.
  • noun A name of several different birds.
  • noun A child's top.

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

  • noun The 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, corresponding in pronunciation to n.
  • noun The 25th letter of the Arabic alphabet, corresponding in pronunciation to n.
  • noun A woman devoted to a religious life, who lives in a convent, under the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
  • noun A white variety of domestic pigeons having a veil of feathers covering the head.
  • noun The smew.
  • noun The European blue titmouse.
  • noun (R. C. Ch.) the members of a religious order established in Montreal in 1745, whence branches were introduced into the United States in 1853; -- so called from the color or their robe, and known in religion as Sisters of Charity of Montreal.
  • noun See under Buoy.

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

  • noun The fourteenth letter of many Semitic alphabets/abjads (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and others).
  • noun A member of a Christian religious community of women who live by certain vows and usually wear a habit, in some cases living together in a cloister.
  • noun By extension, member of a similar female community in other confessions.

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

  • noun a buoy resembling a cone
  • noun the 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet
  • noun a woman religious

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Mishnaic Hebrew nûn, of Phoenician origin; see nwn in Semitic roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English nunne and from Old French nonne, both from Late Latin nonna, feminine of nonnus, tutor, monk.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ultimately from Proto-Semitic *nūn- (“fish”).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin nonna ("nun, tutor"), originally (along with masculine form nonnus ("man")) a term of address for elderly persons, perhaps from children's speech, reminiscent of nana, like papa etc.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Also a European cowrie shell of the genus Trivia, a kind of bird, and a Hebrew letter corresponding to "n".

    November 18, 2007

  • mum

    May 6, 2008

  • or, indeed, ovo

    May 6, 2008

  • Usage here.

    October 23, 2008

  • Nickname for the blue titmouse.

    May 13, 2011

  • Also a nickname for the smew (which is also called white nun).

    May 14, 2011