Word.ws English Dictionary

friary

/ˈfɹaɪəɹi/

friary noun: a house or convent where friars (members of certain religious communities) live.

Noun

friary (plural friaries)

  1. A house or convent where friars (members of certain religious communities) live.
    • For this reason, Francis asked that part of the friary garden always be left untouched, so that wild flowers and herbs could grow there, and those who saw them could raise their minds to God, the Creator of such beauty.2015, Pope Francis I, Laudato Si': Encyclical Letter on care for our common home

Adjective

friary (comparative more friary, superlative most friary)

  1. Like a friar; relating to friars or to a convent.
    • Saint Francis with his Friery kowle in a corne-field.1605, M. N. [pseudonym; William Camden], Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine, […], London: […] G[eorge] E[ld] for Simon Waterson, →OCLC

Forms of friary

Noun
pluralfriaries
Adjective
comparativemore friary
superlativemost friary

Origin of friary

From friar (“brother in a religious order”) + -y (nominal suffix), from Latin frater (“brother”), from Latin. Piecewise doublet of fratery.

From friar + -y (adjectival suffix). Piecewise doublet of pally.

Words formed from friary

Words that rhyme with friary

Questions about friary

What does friary mean?
Friary means a house or convent where friars (members of certain religious communities) live.
What part of speech is friary?
Friary can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce friary?
Friary is pronounced /ˈfɹaɪəɹi/.
What is the plural of friary?
The plural of friary is friaries.

Words near friary in the dictionary

  1. Friars Preachers
  2. friars' omelettes
  3. friarship
  4. friarships
  5. Friarton
  6. friary
  7. Frias
  8. Friases
  9. Friasian
  10. friation
  11. frib

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: friary (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-friary.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-friary.wav.

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