MONKS Synonyms: 69 Similar and Opposite Words

monks

noun

plural of monk

as in friars

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Example Sentences

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.

Recent Examples of monks 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

Recent Examples of Synonyms for monks

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

Noun

Videos posted on social media show street preachers speaking with multiple police officers outside the event.

— Emily Holshouser, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 24 July 2026
Instead, there are countless influencers, preachers, and personalities who have created niche movements with their own theologies and political alignments.

— Meghan O’Gieblyn, The New York Review of Books, 11 July 2026

Definition of preachers

Noun

Her parents, Baptist deacons who ultimately left the church over its refusal to ordain women, raised their children to wrestle with such questions.

— Pamela Colloff, ProPublica, 30 June 2026
While women cannot be ordained as priests or deacons, they are not forbidden from teaching the faith as theologians, catechists and scholars.

— Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 2 May 2026