Meaning & use
monastery
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Meanings
nouncountablereligion
A place where a group of monks live, work and pray together.
Grammar: Plural is monasteries.
Patterns
- in a monastery
- a monastery in somewhere
The monks rise before dawn at the monastery.
We visited a mountain monastery in Tibet.
He spent a year in a monastery studying scripture.
nouncountable
The buildings and grounds of such a community, often a historic site.
Grammar: May refer to the ruins of a former community.
The ruined monastery attracts hundreds of tourists.
Tourists walked around the old monastery gardens.
The monastery was founded in the twelfth century.
Word forms
| plural | monasteries |
|---|
Common combinations
- Buddhist monastery
- The Buddhist monastery sits on a cliff.
- enter a monastery
- He entered a monastery at twenty.
- medieval monastery
- A medieval monastery stood on the hill.
- monastery walls
- Silence reigned inside the monastery walls.
- monastery garden
- The monastery garden grew herbs for the infirmary.
Synonyms and how they differ
- abbey
- An abbey is a monastery or convent led by an abbot or abbess.
- priory
- A priory is a smaller house led by a prior, so it is usually less important than a monastery.
- convent
- A convent houses nuns, while monastery usually houses monks.
- cloister
- Cloister is the covered walkway inside, but it can also mean a secluded religious house.
Word family
- monastic adjective
- relating to monks or a monastery
- monk noun
- a man who lives in a monastery
- monasticism noun
- the way of life of monks
- monastic order noun
- a religious group of monks
Commonly confused: monastery or mystery? monastery or nunnery?
monastery vs mystery
Mystery and monastery are sometimes mixed up in spelling. A mystery is something unexplained; a monastery is where monks live.
monastery vs nunnery
A nunnery is for nuns, while a monastery is usually for monks.
Practice
Where would you most likely find monks?
Choose one answer.
Monks live in a monastery. The other places are not residences for religious communities.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “monastery”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.