recluse

/ɹɪˈkluːs/US/ɹɪˈklus/

recluse adjective: sequestered; secluded, isolated. Also the ellipsis of recluse spider.

Adjective

recluse (comparative more recluse, superlative most recluse)

(archaic) Sequestered; secluded, isolated.
- a recluse monk or hermit
- Hermits themſelves are not recluſe enough to ſeclude that ſubtile ſpirit, Vanity: […]1667, J[ohn] Evelyn, Publick Employment and an Active Life, with Its Appanages, such as Fame, Command, Riches, Conversation, &c. Preferred to Solitude: […], London: […] J. M. for H[enry] Herringman...
(archaic) Hidden, secret.

Noun

recluse (plural recluses)

(archaic) A person who lives in self-imposed isolation or seclusion from the world, especially for religious purposes; a hermit.
- The recluse in the fable kept a cat to keep off the rats, and then a cow to feed the cat with milk, and a man to keep the cow and so on. My ambitions also grew like the family of the recluse.1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xv
- First, the president’s uncle died in 1985. Kaczynski was publicly revealed as the Unabomber more than a decade later, in 1996, when he was captured; before that, he had lived as a recluse in the Montana wilderness.2025 July 16, Daniel Dale, “Fact check: Trump tells fictional story about his uncle and the Unabomber”, in CNN, archived from the original on 18 Jul 2025
Synonyms:

anchorite, eremite, hermit
(archaic, obsolete) The place where a recluse dwells; a place of isolation or seclusion.
- that day of appearance taken out of the recluse and committed to safe custody1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC
(archaic) See also Thesaurus:recluse

Verb

recluse (third-person singular simple present recluses, present participle reclusing, simple past and past participle reclused)

(archaic, obsolete, transitive) To shut; to seclude.

Also used as

recluse is also the ellipsis of recluse spider.

recluse meaning in Telugu

recluse in Telugu

a person who lives in self-imposed isolation or seclusion from the world, especially for religious purposes; a hermit: తపస్వి tapasvi, తపస్విని tapasvini

Examples of recluse in a sentence

The recluse did not fit in at the party.
What if they turned out to be ranting misanthropes or monosyllabic recluses?
Also, a larger percentage of ailing outgoers than frail recluses would consider rebates.

All 12 example sentences with recluse

Synonyms of recluse

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

sullen

All synonyms of recluse

Forms of recluse

Adjective
comparative	more recluse
superlative	most recluse
Noun
plural	recluses
Verb
third-person singular present	recluses
present participle	reclusing
past participle	reclused
past	reclused

Origin of recluse

From Old French reclus, past participle of reclure, from Latin reclūdere (“to disclose, to open”), from re- + claudō (“close”).

Words formed from recluse

Phrases with recluse

Words that rhyme with recluse

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about recluse

What does recluse mean?: Recluse means sequestered; secluded, isolated.
What is recluse in Telugu?: Recluse in Telugu is తపస్వి (tapasvi), తపస్విని (tapasvini). See Recluse meaning in Telugu.
What part of speech is recluse?: Recluse can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce recluse?: Recluse is pronounced /ɹɪˈkluːs/.

Words near recluse in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: recluse (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-recluse.wav.

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