Word.ws English Dictionary

motherhouses

motherhouses is the plural of motherhouse.

Meaning of motherhouse

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.

Questions about motherhouses

What is motherhouses the plural of?
Motherhouses is the plural of motherhouse.

Words near motherhouses in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: motherhouses (page history and authors); 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.

Last updated:

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