- a male member of a religious community bound by vows of poverty, chastity, and obedienceRelated adjective(s): monastic
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
monk /mʌŋk/USA pronunciation
n. [countable]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- Religiona man who is a member of a religious order, usually living in a monastery.
monk
(mungk),USA pronunciation n.
Monk (mungk),USA pronunciation n.
- Religion(in Christianity) a man who has withdrawn from the world for religious reasons, esp. as a member of an order of cenobites living according to a particular rule and under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
- Religion(in any religion) a man who is a member of a monastic order:a Buddhist monk.
- [Print.]a dark area on a printed page caused by uneven inking of the plate or type. Cf. friar (def. 2).
- Greek monachós hermit, noun, nominal use of adjective, adjectival: solitary, equivalent. to món(os) alone + -achos adjective, adjectival suffix
- Late Latin monachus
- bef. 900; Middle English; Old English munuc
- 1. brother. Monk, friar refer to members of special male groups whose lives are devoted to the service of the church, esp. in Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox denominations. A monk is properly a member of a monastery, under a superior; he is bound by a vow of stability, and is a co-owner of the community property of the monastery. Since the Reformation, monk and friar have been used as if they were the same. A friar is, however, strictly speaking, a member of a mendicant order, whose members are not attached to a monastery and own no community property.
Monk (mungk),USA pronunciation n.
- BiographicalGeorge. See Monck, George.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
monk /mʌŋk/ n
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
Monk /mʌŋk/ n
- Thelonious (Sphere) ( θəˈləʊnɪəs ). 1920–82, US jazz pianist and composer
- a variant spelling of (George) Monck
'monk' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
Anthony
- Augustine
- Bacon
- Bede
- Benedictine
- Bernard
- Bonaventura
- bonze
- Cædmon
- Cassiodorus
- cell
- Cistercian
- cowl
- Cuthbert
- dervish
- Dionysius Exiguus
- éminence grise
- Fa Xian
- Fra
- Guido d'Arezzo
- habit
- Hume
- Jerome
- John of the Cross
- lama
- Lewis
- Lydgate
- Merton
- monastic
- monk's cloth
- Nagarjuna
- Pachomius
- Peter the Hermit
- religious
- shaman
- Simeon Stylites
- talapoin
- Tetzel
- Trappist
- votary
- William of Malmesbury
- Xuan Zang
- Anthony of Padua
- armarian
- ascetic
- Basilian
- benedict
- Bernard of Clairvaux
- bhikshu
- Black Monk