anchoresses

noun

variants or ancresses
plural of anchoress
as in nuns

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for anchoresses
  1. nuns
  2. religious
  3. novices
  4. monks
  5. prioresses
  6. mendicants
  7. clerics
Noun
  • One of the nuns was allegedly killed by a demon appearing as a nun, and the other died by suicide to avoid being possessed by the evil force.
    — Julie Tremaine, PEOPLE, 27 Oct. 2025
  • At some point, a pair of politically active nuns started hanging out at the Nash home, eventually leaving their formal nun habits, cast off as part of their activism, at the house.
    — Peter Larsen, Oc Register, 22 Aug. 2025
Definition of nuns
Noun
  • As a young religious, Bishop-elect Lombardo did missionary work in Bolivia and Honduras.
    — Laura Rodríguez Presa, chicagotribune.com, 11 Sep. 2020
Definition of religious
Noun
  • Knowledgeable bartenders guide novices and obsessives alike, making an overwhelming list feel approachable rather than intimidating.
    — USA TODAY NETWORK, USA Today, 29 July 2026
  • Some are tennis novices while others, like Foon, are coming off a long pause.
    — Lynda Lin Grigsby, Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2026
Definition of novices
Noun
  • Two monks sustained serious injuries, and one monk lost part of his leg as a result of the crash.
    — Jasmine Baehr, FOXNews.com, 10 Feb. 2026
Definition of monks
Noun
  • For the senior members of the order — two successive prioresses and the conflicted but maternal assistant prioress, Mother Marie — the role of self-abnegation is a deep moral mystery, one that takes a lifetime to fully understand.
    — Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, 16 Oct. 2022
Definition of prioresses
Noun
  • Throughout much of Buddhist history, and particularly in Theravada Buddhist contexts, mindfulness and its associated meditation methods have been the purview of mendicants (monks and nuns), who used mindfulness meditation to achieve trance states (jhana) leading to nirvana.
    — Charles Preston, Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Apr. 2026
  • But those states also have Republican governors, who would have raised holy hell if their constituents had been menaced by these roving mobs of mendicants.
    — Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 28 Nov. 2025
Definition of mendicants
Noun
  • In July, over 250 former lawmakers, clerics, professors and other public figures signed an anti-war petition warning of the costs of the conflict.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 2 Aug. 2026
  • Voice of America’s Persian Service began airing in its current form in 1979, shortly after the Iranian Revolution toppled the Shah and installed the Islamist clerics who rule the country to this day.
    — Marc Fisher, New Yorker, 30 July 2026
Definition of clerics
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Anchoresses.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/anchoresses. Accessed 7 Aug. 2026.

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