Word.ws English Dictionary

Clarissan

Clarissan adjective: of or relating to the Order of Saint Clare.

Adjective

Clarissan (not comparable)

  1. Of or relating to the Order of Saint Clare.
    • Strict enclosure presented additional complexities when the convent churches were open to the lay public, as was the case in the Clarissan order ("Poor Clares").2005, Caroline A. Bruzelius, “Hearing Is Believing: Clarissan Architecture, c. 1213–1340”, in Medieval Religion: New Approaches, page 249
    • There are two commissions for the Clarissan order (or Poor Clares), that warrant attention, the convent church at Santa Chiara in Bra and the convent church at Santa Chiara in Turin.2021, William Stargard, “Space and the Meaning of Distance in Bernardo Vittone's Architecture”, in Hemispheres and Stratospheres, page 46
  2. Of or relating to someone named Clarissa.
    • The image of the crowds of fallen women can be seen as both the diametrical opposite to and the necessary contrast or "negative space" for the emergence of the unique woman, the paragon. Obviously, the "luster" of the Clarissan diamond is best perceived against these "common stones", to paraphrase...2005, Martha J. Koehler, Models of Reading: Paragons and Parasites in Richardson, Burney, and Laclos, page 138
    • This sort of reading identifies the whole novel with a naïve Clarissan view...2008, Robert L. Chibka, “Henry Fielding, Mentalist”, in Henry Fielding in Our Time, page 93

Noun

Clarissan (plural Clarissans)

  1. Synonym of Poor Clare: a nun of the Order of Saint Clare.
    • The rule of the Clarissans, who take their name from St Clara, was very strict.1865, John Malcolm Forbes Ludlow, Women's Work in the Church, page 130
    Synonyms:
    Poor Clare

Synonyms of Clarissan

Forms of Clarissan

pluralClarissans

Origin of Clarissan

From Clarissa + -an.

Questions about Clarissan

What does Clarissan mean?
Clarissan means of or relating to the Order of Saint Clare.
What part of speech is Clarissan?
Clarissan can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near Clarissan in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Clarissan (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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