monk

/mʌŋk/

monk noun: a male member of a monastic order who has devoted his life for religious service.

Image: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

monk (plural monks)

A male member of a monastic order who has devoted his life for religious service.
- This is believed to be the completeſt liſt of this voluminous, proſaick, and driveling monk, that can be formed, without acceſs, at leaſt, to every manuſcript library in the kingdom, which would be very difficult, if not imposſible, to obtain.1802, Joseph Ritson, “Poets of the Fifteenth Century”, in Bibliographia Poetica
- In clusters on the plain, like cowlless monks at matins, sat the vultures that had settled on the corpse of the hyena impaled by the female rhino […]1982, Michael Bishop, No enemy but time
In earlier usage, an eremite or hermit devoted to solitude, as opposed to a cenobite, who lived communally.
- Tony's face expressed relief, and Nettie sat silent for a moment until the vicar said “It was a generous impulse, but it may have been a momentary one, while in the case of monk and crusader there must have been a sustaining purpose, and possibly a great abnegation, a leaving of lands and...1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 20, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC
(slang) Someone who leads an isolated life; a loner, a hermit.
(slang) An unmarried man who does not have sexual relationships.
(slang) A judge.
(archaic) An inkblot.
A South American monkey (Pithecia monachus); also applied to other species, as Cebus xanthosternos.
The bullfinch, common bullfinch, European bullfinch, or Eurasian bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula).
The monkfish.
(historical) A fuse for firing mines.

Verb

monk (third-person singular simple present monks, present participle monking, simple past and past participle monked)

To be a monk.
- "Ah!" she cried, "thou art the prettiest little monk that ever monked it in this blessed, amorous town of Constance!"1990, Honoré de Balzac, James Lewis May, Jean de Boschère, Ten droll tales, page 25
- Good people, if you're ever short of a job, don't take up monking for a living.2002, David Pownall, Plays two - Volume 2, →ISBN, page 41
To act like a monk; especially to be contemplative.
- Many a scholar, making wings of candlewicks to flap away old darkness, monked his life to fasting long while feasting upon new light.1961, Snowy Egret - Volumes 25-30, page 74
- ...drinking: monking on a mountain: plodding in self-inflicted darkness so that the entrance into light would be heightened and supercharged: sacrifice and gain: the meek shall inherit the earth.1971, Bill Amidon, Charge ...!, page 196
To monkey or meddle; to behave in a manner that is not systematic.
- The Avatar spoke gently as she responded to his jibe. "Now fucking get aboard and stop monking on like a schoolboy, you silly earplug.2015, Tooty Nolan, Earplug Adventures: An Exaltation of Earplugs, →ISBN
- "You just go into the swamp and keep monking around, and maybe in a week er so, somebody'll open up and begin shooting at you, and if you live long enough to git curious about it, that'll be Tom Keefer."2008, Vereen Bell, Swamp Water, →ISBN, page 197
To be intoxicated or confused.
- I looked up from the thick cotton mat, unsure where my legs were. “She looks monked up.” “maybe her brain is damaged, huh, miss Bryant?”2011, Devon W. Carbado, Dwight A. McBride, Donald Weise, Black Like Us: A Century of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual African American Fiction, →ISBN
- She looked down at herself and said, “Oh, I got that from monking.” “From what?” “Monking. You ain't never done meth, girl?” she said.2015, Tonya Craft, Accused: My Fight for Truth, Justice, and the Strength to Forgive, →ISBN
(transitive) To attach so that it sticks out.
- Molten roofing north, lead dripping down south, stand like those immobilized columns of arctic water west, stalagmites, monked and housed or stamped and dudleyed east, in school texts.1981, Kalu Uka, A Consummation of Fire: A Novel, page 9
- All these controls and screens are monked on to a massive network of computers that coordinates the sights.1987, The Pioneer - Volumes 111-122, page 11

Noun (2)

monk (plural monks)

(colloquial) A monkey.
- ‘We wuz talkin’ and the monk got loose, and she sent me off to catch him.’1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 64
- It seems that the big monk up on the roof is nobody but Bongo, who is a gorilla belonging to the circus, and one of the very few gorillas of any account in this country, or anywhere else, as far as this goes, because good gorillas are very scarce, indeed.

Proper noun capitalized: Monk

Monk (plural Monks)

A surname.

monk meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

monk in Hindi

male member of monastic order: भिक्षु bhikṣu, महन्त mahant, संन्यासी sannyāsī

monk in Tamil

male member of monastic order: துறவி tuṟavi
slang: man living without sexual relationships: துறவி tuṟavi

monk in Urdu

male member of monastic order: راہِب rāhib

More languagesFewer languages

monk in Bengali: ভিক্ষু bhikkhu, সন্ন্যাসী śonnnaśi
monk in Telugu: బోడి bōḍi, భాగవతుడు bhāgavatuḍu
monk in Malayalam: റമ്പാൻ ṟampāṉ, സന്ന്യാസി sannyāsi
monk in Kannada: ಗೊರವ, ಗೊರವು, ಸಂನ್ಯಾಸಿ, ಭಿಕ್ಷು
monk in Punjabi: ਰਾਹਬ rāhab
monk in Gujarati: સમણ samaṇ, સેવડો sevḍo
monk in Odia: ସନ୍ନ୍ଯାସୀ
monk in Sanskrit: अवष्टम्भ avaṣṭambha
monk in Nepali: भिक्षु bhikṣu
monk in Pashto: راهب rāheb
monk in Tagalog: monghe
monk in Arabic: رَاهِب rāhib, نَاسِك nāsik
monk in Malay: rahib, sami
monk in Indonesian: rahib, biksu
monk in Thai: พระ prá, นักพรต nák-prót
monk in Vietnamese: tu sĩ, thầy tu, đan sĩ
monk in Myanmar: ဘုန်းကြီး bhun:kri:, ရဟန်း ra.han:, ပဉ္စင်း panycang:, ဘိက္ခု bhikhku.

Examples of monk in a sentence

I call it "monking," because you can become so inspired, with revelations and understandings.2001, Kevin Everod Quashie, R. Joyce Lausch, Keith D. Miller, New Bones: Contemporary Black Writers in America, page 482:
Those shelters formed chapels where aged forms of the implants monked out in built cells, little churchy cells that perished or grew plain, quivering and hidden from sight under alders.2014, Ken Babstock, On Malice, →ISBN, page 63:

All 40 example sentences with monk

Forms of monk

Noun
plural	monks
alternative form (obsolete)	moncke
Verb
third-person singular present	monks
present participle	monking
past participle	monked
past	monked
Proper noun
plural	Monks

Plural of monk: monks

Origin of monk

From Middle English monk, from Old English munuc, from Proto-West Germanic *munik, from Late Latin monicus, variant of monachus, from Ancient Greek μοναχός (monakhós, “single, solitary”), from μόνος (mónos, “alone”).

By shortening.

Words formed from monk

Phrases with monk

6 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about monk

What does monk mean?: Monk means a male member of a monastic order who has devoted his life for religious service.
What is monk in Hindi?: Monk in Hindi is भिक्षु (bhikṣu), महन्त (mahant), संन्यासी (sannyāsī). See Monk meaning in Hindi.
How do you use monk in a sentence?: I call it "monking," because you can become so inspired, with revelations and understandings.
What part of speech is monk?: Monk can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce monk?: Monk is pronounced /mʌŋk/.
What is the plural of monk?: The plural of monk is monks.

Words near monk in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-monk.ogg.

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