nun

/nʌn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Ireland/nʊn/

nun noun: a member of a Christian religious community of women who live by certain vows and usually wear a habit, (Roman Catholicism, specifically) those living together in a cloister. Also the pronunciation spelling of nothing.

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Noun (1)

nun (plural nuns)

A member of a Christian religious community of women who live by certain vows and usually wear a habit, (Roman Catholicism, specifically) those living together in a cloister.
- Thus, when the nuns came to the mission and we saw that instead of murmuring soft blessings and gliding seraphically over the grass in diaphanous habits, they wore smart blouses and skirts and walked, laughed and talked in low twanging tones very much like our own American missionaries did, we were...1988, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions, Faber & Faber Limited (2021), page 258
Synonyms:

sister, moniale, sistren, cloistress

Antonyms:

brother, friar, monk, frater
(broadly) A member of a similar female community in other confessions.
- a Buddhist nun
(UK, archaic, slang) A prostitute.
- Why laſt night, as Colonel Kill'em, Sir William Weezy, Lord Frederick Foretop, and I were careleſsly ſliding the Ranelagh round, picking our teeth, after a damn'd muzzy dinner at Boodle's, who ſhould trip by but an abbeſs, well known about town, with a ſmart little nun in her ſuite.1770, Samuel Foote, The Lame Lover, a Comedy in Three Acts. […], London: […] Paul Vaillant; and sold by P[eter] Elmsly […]; and Robinson and Roberts, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 12
- "I mean to inform you," answered the Oxonian, with a grin on his face, "that those three nymphs, who have so much dazzled your optics, are three nuns, and the plump female is Mother .... of great notoriety [...]"1881, Pierce Egan, chapter 8, in Life in London, page 205
Synonyms:

abandons, alley cat, almah, bangtail, Bankside lady, bargirl, bat, beotch, blouze, blowen
A kind of pigeon with the feathers on its head like the hood of a nun.

Noun (2)

nun (plural nuns)

The fourteenth letter of many Semitic alphabets or abjads (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and others).

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Nun

Nun

(rare) A male given name from Hebrew.
- And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Nun

Nun

The languages of the Bamun people of western Cameroon.

Also used as

nun is also the pronunciation spelling of nothing.

nun meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

nun in Hindi

member of a Christian religious community of women: मठवासिनी maṭhvāsinī, भक्तिन bhaktin
member of a non-Christian religious community of women: मठवासिनी maṭhvāsinī, तपस्विनी tapasvinī

nun in Tamil

member of a Christian religious community of women: துறவி tuṟavi
member of a non-Christian religious community of women: துறவி tuṟavi

nun in Marathi

नन

nun in Urdu

member of a Christian religious community of women: راہِبَہ rāhiba, نَن nan
Semitic letter: نون nūn

More languagesFewer languages

nun in Bengali: সন্ন্যাসিনী
nun in Malayalam: കന്യാസ്ത്രീ
nun in Kannada: ಸನ್ಯಾಸಿನಿ
nun in Punjabi: ਨਨ
nun in Gujarati: નન
nun in Odia: ସନ୍ନ୍ଯାସିନୀ
nun in Nepali: नन
nun in Tagalog: madre
nun in Arabic: رَاهِبَة rāhiba, نُون nūn, ن n
nun in Malay: rahib perempuan
nun in Indonesian: biarawati, suster
nun in Persian: نون nun, ن
nun in Thai: ชี chii, แม่ชี
nun in Vietnamese: xơ, bà xơ, nữ tu sĩ, nữ tu
nun in Myanmar: သီလရှင် sila.hrang, ဘိက္ခုနီ bhikhku.ni

Examples of nun in a sentence

The abbess was always after the nuns to keep the convent immaculately clean.
The joke about the nuns in the bath cracked me up.
The nuns prayed on the matter daily, sending flutters of devotion to the heavens.

All 40 example sentences with nun

Synonyms of nun

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of nun

Forms of nun

plural	nuns
alternative form	noon
alternative form	nūn

Plural of nun: nuns

Origin of nun

From Middle English nonne, nunne, from Old English nunne (“nun”), from Late Latin nonna (“nun, tutor”), originally (along with masculine form nonnus (“man”)) a term of address for elderly persons, perhaps from children's speech, reminiscent of nana, like papa etc. Doublet of nonna.

Borrowed from the letter’s name in the respective language. Doublet of nu.

From Hebrew.

Words formed from nun

Phrases with nun

Words that rhyme with nun

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about nun

What does nun mean?: Nun means a member of a Christian religious community of women who live by certain vows and usually wear a habit, (Roman Catholicism, specifically) those living together in a cloister.
What is nun in Hindi?: Nun in Hindi is मठवासिनी (maṭhvāsinī), भक्तिन (bhaktin), तपस्विनी (tapasvinī). See Nun meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is nun?: Nun can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce nun?: Nun is pronounced /nʌn/.
What is the plural of nun?: The plural of nun is nuns.

Words near nun in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-nun.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-nun (oo).wav.

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