variants
or ancress
as in prioress
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Recent Examples of anchoress
In the medieval church, women’s roles were limited – usually some form of enclosure and celibacy, such as becoming an anchoress walled up alone for life, or a nun in a classic convent.
—
Joelle Rollo-Koster, The Conversation, 25 Feb. 2025
Louise, a former anchoress, is her humble, tyrannical maid.
—Hervé Guibert, Harper's Magazine, 2 Nov. 2024
Some of the spotlighted individuals, like St. Catherine of Siena and English anchoress Julian of Norwich, were celebrated in their day as visionaries, while others, including Kempe and Joan of Arc, were persecuted as heretics.
—Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Oct. 2024
Joelle Rollo-Koster, The Conversation, 25 Feb. 2025
Louise, a former anchoress, is her humble, tyrannical maid.
—Hervé Guibert, Harper's Magazine, 2 Nov. 2024
Some of the spotlighted individuals, like St. Catherine of Siena and English anchoress Julian of Norwich, were celebrated in their day as visionaries, while others, including Kempe and Joan of Arc, were persecuted as heretics.
—Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Oct. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for anchoress
Noun
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Matrix by Lauren Groff Currents of violence and devotion coalesce around Marie de France, a 17-year-old sent to be the new prioress of a 12th-century English abbey.—
Mia Barzilay Freund,
Vogue,
7 July 2025
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In response, the diocese said in a statement that the Holy See has acted toward healing the Arlington Carmel and the nuns in the community and not simply the former prioress and her former councilors.—
Elizabeth Campbell,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
21 Apr. 2024
Noun
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Now, thanks to a greater emphasis on women’s education in recent years, Tibetan Buddhist nuns are increasingly becoming teachers and abbesses.—
Darcie Price-Wallace,
The Conversation,
26 Sep. 2025
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Hildegard von Bingen, a Benedictine abbess and eventual saint, lived in the Middle Ages, when women’s lives were severely restricted.—
Faith Hill,
The Atlantic,
2 June 2025
Noun
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As a young religious, Bishop-elect Lombardo did missionary work in Bolivia and Honduras.—
Laura Rodríguez Presa,
chicagotribune.com,
11 Sep. 2020
Noun
-
The final grand surprise of her first day in Mexico came when someone informed her that the creation was the work of a single nun living in the seclusion of the Hieronymite convent of Santa Paula, just a few miles away.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
4 Nov. 2025
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Eighty-eight-year-old Sister Bernadette, who has been a nun here since 1955, takes social media stardom in her stride.—
Esme Nicholson,
NPR,
4 Nov. 2025
Noun
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He had been dressed as a monk for Halloween weekend, with a hooded robe, but Rachel Kelly said he was found shirtless in his sweatpants.—
Kansas City Star,
Kansas City Star,
5 Nov. 2025
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Writing about 200 years after Fibonacci, the monk Luca Pacioli (who taught mathematics to both Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer) described the ‘Italian’ approach to bookkeeping.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
5 Nov. 2025
Noun
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These people who see the theater as almost a monastic calling something of a higher order, and they’re brilliantly educated and funny.—
Caitlin Huston,
HollywoodReporter,
16 Oct. 2025
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As the numbers of women at the highest echelons of learning continue to grow, women will likewise expand their ability to take leadership roles in their monastic and lay communities – helping to improve other nuns’ education and protecting Tibetan culture in the process.—
Darcie Price-Wallace,
The Conversation,
26 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Guido eventually became a Dominican friar, dedicating himself to making art within the mendicant order; after his death, in 1455, he became known as Fra Angelico, or the Angelic Friar.—
Louise Bokkenheuser,
Air Mail,
4 Oct. 2025
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When Las Casas first landed in Hispaniola (today divided by Haiti in the west and the Dominican Republic in the east), his head was already crowned with a friar’s tonsure.—
Greg Grandin
September 23,
Literary Hub,
23 Sep. 2025
Noun
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For seasoned cooks and kitchen novices, cookbook author and nutritionist Robin Miller takes it back to the basics with great, family-friendly recipes worth making over and over again.—
Robin Miller,
AZCentral.com,
7 Nov. 2025
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Both veteran and novice skiers were on our trip, guided by the father-son team at Spor Guiding, and appeared to be having the times of their lives.—
Susan B. Barnes,
USA Today,
6 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Anchoress.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/anchoress. Accessed 12 Nov. 2025.
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