Word.ws English Dictionary

clarissa

/kləˈɹɪsə/

clarissa is the alternative letter-case form of Clarissa.

Proper noun capitalized: Clarissa

Clarissa

  1. A female given name from Latin or Italian.
    • My wife's maiden name—Unmarried name, I should rather say […] was Harlowe—Clarissa Harlowe—you heard me call her my Clarissa—
      I did—but I thought it to be a feigned or a love-name, said Miss Rawlins. […]
      No—it was her real name, I said.1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa

Noun capitalized: Clarissa

Clarissa (plural Clarissas)

  1. Synonym of Poor Clare: a nun of the Order of Saint Clare.
    • Following Francis' example, Clare founded an order of religious women known as the Poor Ladies of Assisi (like Francis' Poor Men), and later as the Clarissas or Poor Clares in her honor.1991, Thomas Head, “Clare of Assisi”, in An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers
    • In the protomonastero of Santa Chiara in Assisi, erected from the outset for the Clarissas, however, equally frequent changes and modifications in the location of the nuns' choir suggest that there were still uncertainties as to the best place for it.1992, Caroline A. Bruzelius, “Hearing Is Believing: Clarissan Architecture, ca. 1213–1340”, in Gesta, volume 31, number 2, page 85
    Synonyms:
    Poor Clare

Synonyms of clarissa

Forms of clarissa

pluralclarissas
pluralClarissas
alternative formclarissa

Origin of clarissa

Borrowed from Italian clarissa, from Medieval Latin Clarissa; see there for more. Doublet of Clarisse, Clare, and Clarist.

Borrowed from Italian Clarissa, from Medieval Latin Clarissa; see there for more. Popularized in English by Samuel Richardson's 1748 novel Clarissa. Doublet of Clarisse.

Words formed from clarissa

Words that rhyme with clarissa

Questions about clarissa

What does clarissa mean?
Clarissa means a female given name from Latin or Italian.
What is clarissa the alternative letter-case form of?
Clarissa is the alternative letter-case form of Clarissa.
What part of speech is clarissa?
Clarissa can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce clarissa?
Clarissa is pronounced /kləˈɹɪsə/.

Words near clarissa in the dictionary

  1. clarionet
  2. clarionets
  3. clarioning
  4. clarions
  5. Clarisa
  6. clarissa
  7. Clarissan
  8. Clarissans
  9. clarissas
  10. Clarisse
  11. Clarisses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clarissa (page history and authors); Clarissa (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)-Vealhurl-Clarissa.wav.

Cite this entry: “clarissa.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clarissa. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.