Meaning & use
cloistress
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountablearchaicliterary
A woman who lives apart from the world in a convent, bound by religious vows.
Grammar: Countable: you can say a cloistress or two cloistresses.
Patterns
- a cloistress in a convent
- become a cloistress
In the old poem, a cloistress spends her days in prayer behind high walls.
The story follows a young cloistress who never leaves the convent grounds.
nouncountableliteraryfigurative
A woman who lives a quiet, secluded life, shut away from other people.
Grammar: Countable and usually figurative; the woman is not necessarily religious.
Patterns
- live like a cloistress
- a cloistress of the study
Since her illness she has lived like a cloistress, seeing almost no one.
He called his aunt a cloistress of the library, happy among her silent books.
Word forms
| plural | cloistresses |
|---|
Common combinations
- a cloistress in a convent
- The medieval tale describes a cloistress in a convent who copies manuscripts all day.
- become a cloistress
- At nineteen she chose to become a cloistress and gave away her possessions.
- live like a cloistress
- After retiring, he lived like a cloistress, rarely answering the door or the phone.
- a cloistress of the study
- Her friends joked that she was a cloistress of the study, buried in papers from dawn to dusk.
Synonyms and how they differ
- nun
- This is the normal modern word for a woman in a religious order; cloistress is archaic and sounds poetic or old-fashioned.
- hermit
- A hermit lives alone for religious reasons but is not part of a convent, and the word can be used for men or women.
- recluse
- A recluse simply avoids other people and has no religious meaning, so it fits the figurative sense better.
Word family
- cloister noun
- A covered walk or quiet place in a monastery or convent, or a secluded life.
- cloistered adjective
- Shut away from the world, often describing a quiet, protected life.
- cloistral adjective
- Rare literary adjective meaning belonging to a cloister or convent.
Commonly confused: cloistress or mistress? cloistress or ancestress?
cloistress vs mistress
Mistress sounds similar but means a woman in a romantic relationship with a man who is not her husband; it has nothing to do with convents.
cloistress vs ancestress
Ancestress is a female ancestor, a different word that also ends in -ess.
Practice
Which sentence uses "cloistress" in a way that fits its archaic, literary meaning?
Choose one answer.
"Cloistress" means a woman shut away in a convent, so prayer and a secluded convent life fit. The bakery, football, and car-repair options describe ordinary public life and have nothing to do with religious seclusion.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cloistress”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.