Word.ws English Dictionary

Cistercian

/sɪsˈtɜː(ɹ)ʃən/

Cistercian noun: a member of a monastic order which follows the Benedictine rule and emphasizes silent contemplative prayer.

Noun

Cistercian (plural Cistercians)

  1. A member of a monastic order which follows the Benedictine rule and emphasizes silent contemplative prayer.
    Synonyms:
    white monk

Adjective

Cistercian (comparative more Cistercian, superlative most Cistercian)

  1. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the Cistercian Order and its members.
    • At some unknown point during the twelfth century the problem of waking up at night at the right time to ring the bell was solved, because, in a new version of the Rule for Cistercian monks, it says that the sacrist 'roused by the sound of the clock shall ring the church bell'.1978, James Burke, Connections, Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, pages 128-129

Synonyms of Cistercian

Forms of Cistercian

Noun
pluralCistercians
Adjective
comparativemore Cistercian
superlativemost Cistercian

Origin of Cistercian

From French cistercien, from Latin Cistercium (“Cîteaux”), after the place where the order was founded.

Questions about Cistercian

What does Cistercian mean?
Cistercian means a member of a monastic order which follows the Benedictine rule and emphasizes silent contemplative prayer.
What part of speech is Cistercian?
Cistercian can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce Cistercian?
Cistercian is pronounced /sɪsˈtɜː(ɹ)ʃən/.
What is the plural of Cistercian?
The plural of Cistercian is Cistercians.

Words near Cistercian in the dictionary

  1. cistellae
  2. cistem
  3. cistemic
  4. cistems
  5. cister
  6. Cistercian
  7. Cistercianism
  8. Cistercians
  9. cistern
  10. cistern epiphyte
  11. cistern epiphytes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Cistercian (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.

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