nunnery
/ˈnʌn(ə)ɹi/
nunnery noun: any convent (religious community) or the buildings thereof.
Noun
nunnery (plural nunneries)
- Any convent (religious community) or the buildings thereof.
- The residence of a female religious community, a monastery or abbey for nuns.
- Get thee to a nunnery, why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- The residence of a female religious community, a monastery or abbey for nuns.
- Synonym of brothel.
- [To] some one Gentleman generally acquainted, they giue... free priuiledge thenceforward in theyr Nunnery, to procure them frequentance...1593, Thomas Nashe, Christs Teares ouer Ierusalem, page 79
- To the antipapist Tudors nunnery was a slang term for a brothel.1977, J.T. Shipley, In Praise of England, page 194
- Synonyms:
- brothel
Proper noun capitalized: Nunnery
Nunnery (plural Nunnerys)
- A surname.
nunnery meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
nunnery in Tamil
- கன்னிமாடம்
nunnery in Urdu
- راہباؤں کی خانقاہ
nunnery in Bengali
- মহিলাদের মঠ
nunnery in Malayalam
- കന്യാമഠം, കന്യകാമഠം, സന്ന്യാസിനീമഠം
More languagesFewer languages
- nunnery in Kannada
- ಕ್ರೈಸ್ತ ಸನ್ಯಾಸಿನಿಯರ ಮಠ, ಕ್ರೈಸ್ತ ಸನ್ಯಾಸಿನಿಯರ ನಿವಾಸ
- nunnery in Arabic
- دَيْر, رَهْبَنَة نِسْوِيّ rahbana niswiyy
Synonyms of nunnery
Forms of nunnery
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | nunneries |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Nunnerys |
Origin of nunnery
From Middle English nonnery, nonnerie, equivalent to nun + -ery. (brothel): Compare typologically Czech nevěstinec (< nevěstka < nevěsta).
Questions about nunnery
- What does nunnery mean?
- Nunnery means any convent (religious community) or the buildings thereof.
- What is nunnery in Tamil?
- Nunnery in Tamil is கன்னிமாடம். See Nunnery meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is nunnery?
- Nunnery can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce nunnery?
- Nunnery is pronounced /ˈnʌn(ə)ɹi/.
- What is the plural of nunnery?
- The plural of nunnery is nunneries.
Words near nunnery in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nunnery (page history and authors); Nunnery (page history and authors); nunnery (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nunnery (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nunnery (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nunnery (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nunnery (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: En-au-nunnery.ogg.
Cite this entry: “nunnery.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nunnery. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.