Library / English Dictionary

MONASTIC

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A male religious living in a cloister and devoting himself to contemplation and prayer and work

Synonyms:

monastic; monk

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("monastic" is a kind of...):

religious (a member of a religious order who is bound by vows of poverty and chastity and obedience)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "monastic"):

Brother ((Roman Catholic Church) a title given to a monk and used as form of address)

Carthusian (a member of the Carthusian order)

Cistercian; Trappist (member of an order of monks noted for austerity and a vow of silence)

Instance hyponyms:

Bacon; Roger Bacon (English scientist and Franciscan monk who stressed the importance of experimentation; first showed that air is required for combustion and first used lenses to correct vision (1220-1292))

Benedict; Saint Benedict; St. Benedict (Italian monk who founded the Benedictine order about 540 (480-547))

Gregor Mendel; Johann Mendel; Mendel (Augustinian monk and botanist whose experiments in breeding garden peas led to his eventual recognition as founder of the science of genetics (1822-1884))

Pelagius (a British or Irish monk who denied the doctrines of original sin and predestination and defended human goodness and free will; his views were declared heretical by the Council of Ephesus in 431 (circa 360-418))

Derivation:

monastic (of communal life sequestered from the world under religious vows)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of communal life sequestered from the world under religious vows

Synonyms:

cloistered; cloistral; conventual; monastic; monastical

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

unworldly (not concerned with the temporal world or swayed by mundane considerations)

Derivation:

monastic (a male religious living in a cloister and devoting himself to contemplation and prayer and work)

Credits