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monastic

monastic

11 7.9
Relating to life in a monastery with simple rules and little contact with others
  • adjective
  • /məˈnæstɪk/
translation icon : monástico
  • The monks' daily routines reflect their monastic commitment to prayer and solitude.
  • monastic community
  • monastic life
  • monastic art

So it became this kind of a monastic experience as well.

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Examples

  • The story is told of the monastic disciple who asked the teacher about enlightenment.

    Academic text (1990)
  • My life is somewhat monastic and it completely supports this work that I do, which is prayerful.

  • So it became this kind of a monastic experience as well.

  • What is what is the monastic life really about here?

  • I ask to be accepted as a bride of the Lord in the monastic life.

  • Much has changed since you embraced the monastic life, my son.

  • In the background comes Drew, dressed in his monastic robes, no hat on his head.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Then, and for years to come, he would live in near-monastic isolation with his family, slowly perfecting his art.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Most of the nuns here are noble women who have embraced the monastic life because there was not enough money at home to provide them with dowries.

  • The previous occupants were an order of monastic monks who've sworn vows of chastity... poverty and silence.

Synonyms

cloistered
vsmonastic
3 8.7

Living apart from other people and the outside world, often in a quiet place

is about communal religious living under vows rather than only privacy
monkish
vsmonastic
1 8.7

Being simple and strict in life like a monk

focuses on communal vowed life rather than personal austerity
monastical
vsmonastic
  • Archaic
9.9

A quiet, simple religious life with prayer and few possessions

applies more generally to communal religious life led by vowed people
conventual
vsmonastic
9.9

About the quiet shared life of people who live together in a convent

covers communal religious life beyond just that kind of residence
cloistral
vsmonastic
9.9

Living quietly and separately like monks or nuns in a convent

focuses more on communal life under vows than on mere seclusion
monklike
vsmonastic
7.4

A person who lives simply and quietly with little social contact

relates to communal vowed life rather than individual likeness

Compounds

A community of monks or nuns who live together under religious rules

A long loose garment worn by monks to show their religious group

How Monastic

ascetic
4 8.8
monastic
11 7.9
cloistered
3 8.7
religious
2.7
secular
143 4.7

Surface Forms

monastic positive

Morphology

monastic = monastery (transparent) = monast + ic

The adjective meaning is a straightforward relational formation from 'monastery'/'monk' indicating relation to monastic life.

Etymology

Monastic comes from the Greek mono- meaning 'one' or 'alone', the same root that gave us monk. That's why monastic describes a quiet, simple, and often private way of living, like the life of monks and nuns.