- begging
- (of a member of a religious order) dependent on alms for sustenance
- a mendicant friar
- a less common word for beggar
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
men•di•cant /ˈmɛndɪkənt/USA pronunciation
n.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- [countable]
- one who lives by begging;
beggar. - Religiona member of a religious order who begs or lives on alms.
men•di•cant
(men′di kənt),USA pronunciation adj.
n.
- begging;
practicing begging;
living on alms. - pertaining to or characteristic of a beggar.
n.
- a person who lives by begging;
beggar. - Religiona member of any of several orders of friars that originally forbade ownership of property, subsisting mostly on alms.
- Latin mendīcant- (stem of mendīcāns), present participle of mendīcāre to beg, equivalent. to mendīc(us) beggarly, needy + -ant- -ant
- late Middle English 1425–75
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
mendicant /ˈmɛndɪkənt/ adj
'mendicant' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):