nun

CEFRC1

/nʌn/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A woman who lives in a religious community.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A prostitute.

Examples

  • Mother Teresa was a Catholic nun who lived and worked in Calcutta, India.

  • When she became a nun, she took the name Sister Teresa.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
3
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /nuːn/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A member of a Christian religious community of women who live by certain vows and usually wear a habit, (Roman Catholicism, specifically) those living together in a cloister.

  2. A member of a similar female community in other confessions.

  3. A kind of pigeon with the feathers on its head like the hood of a nun.

More examples

In context

  • And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses.

  • a Buddhist nun

  • "I mean to inform you," answered the Oxonian, with a grin on his face, "that those three nymphs, who have so much dazzled your optics, are three nuns, and the plump female is Mother .... of great notoriety [...]"

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The quiet blank spent hours in the chapel reading from the holy book.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English nonne, nunne, from Old English nunne (“nun”), from Late Latin nonna (“nun, tutor”), originally (along with masculine form nonnus (“man”)) a term of address for elderly persons, perhaps from children's speech, reminiscent of nana, like papa etc. Doublet of nonna.