abby
/ˈæb.i/
abby is the obsolete spelling of abbey.
Meaning of abbey
Noun
abbey (plural abbeys)
- The office or dominion of an abbot or abbess.
- A monastery or society of people, secluded from the world and devoted to religion and celibacy, which is headed by an abbot or abbess; also, the monastic building or buildings.
- Near-synonym: convent
- Synonyms:
- convent
- The church of a monastery.
- No, we can't have alphabetical seating in the abbey. You'd have Iraq and Iran next to each other (laugh track)... Plus Israel and Jordan all sitting in the same pew (laugh track)! We'd be in danger of starting World War III (laugh track)!1987 December 17, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “A Diplomatic Incident”, in Yes, Prime Minister, season 2, episode 3, spoken by Bernard Woolley (Derek Fowlds)
- A residence that was previously an abbatial building.
- The abele or white poplar (Populus alba).
- Ab'bey. The great white poplar: one of the varieties of the Populus alba.1825, James Jennings, Observations on some of the Dialects of the West of England, page 21
Proper noun capitalized: Abby
Abby (plural Abbys)
- A diminutive of the female given name Abigail, from Hebrew, also used as a formal given name.
- "I spose you want to be a cattleboy," drawled the multicolored beard whose name was Carrol Day, a curiously feminine name, thought Martin, not yet acquaintanced with the bearded Marions, Fannys and Abbys of Texas who, saddled by their unthinking mothers with dainty names, built savagely masculine...2002, Annie Proulx, That Old Ace in the Hole, →ISBN, page 81
- A diminutive of the male given name Albert, from the Germanic languages.
Noun capitalized: Abby
Abby
- The Abyssinian cat.
Forms of abby
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | abbies |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Abbys |
| alternative form | Abbe |
| alternative form | Abbey |
| alternative form | Abbi |
| alternative form | Abbie |
| alternative form | Abi |
| alternative form | Abbee |
Origin of abby
A clipping of the word.
Phrases with abby
Words that rhyme with abby
Questions about abby
- What does abby mean?
- Abby means a diminutive of the female given name Abigail, from Hebrew, also used as a formal given name.
- What is abby the obsolete spelling of?
- Abby is the obsolete spelling of abbey.
- What part of speech is abby?
- Abby can be a proper noun or a noun.
- How do you pronounce abby?
- Abby is pronounced /ˈæb.i/.
Words near abby in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: abby (page history and authors); Abby (page history and authors); abbey (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Grendelkhan-Abby.wav.
Cite this entry: “abby.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/abby. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.