Word.ws English Dictionary

motherhouse

motherhouse noun: the monastery from which the other 'houses' of a religious order or congregation were (directly or indirectly) founded, often eponymous.

Noun

motherhouse (plural motherhouses)

  1. The monastery from which the other 'houses' of a religious order or congregation were (directly or indirectly) founded, often eponymous.
    • The Cistercian order is named after its motherhouse Cîteaux in Burgundy, where abbot St. Bernard initiated in 1113 the reform of their branch of the Benedictine order, which has its motherhouse at Monte Cassino.
  2. The convent which is the seat (and often the above original foundation) of the superior of an order or congregation, and/or on which lower ranking houses (such as priories under an abbot) depend.

Forms of motherhouse

pluralmotherhouses

Origin of motherhouse

From mother + house.

Questions about motherhouse

What does motherhouse mean?
Motherhouse means the monastery from which the other 'houses' of a religious order or congregation were (directly or indirectly) founded, often eponymous.
What part of speech is motherhouse?
Motherhouse is a noun.
What is the plural of motherhouse?
The plural of motherhouse is motherhouses.

Words near motherhouse in the dictionary

  1. motherhood
  2. motherhood and apple pie
  3. motherhood statement
  4. motherhood statements
  5. motherhoods
  6. motherhouse
  7. motherhouses
  8. motherhumper
  9. motherhumpers
  10. motherin'
  11. motheriness

Source and license

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