Other forms: monasteries
A monastery is the house where monks live and pray together. An old monastery, enter a monastery, the monastery bell.
Medieval ones were the libraries, hospitals and farms of their regions as well as places of prayer, and much of what survives from the ancient world survives because monks copied it. A convent is the usual word when the community is of women. Note the Greek monos, alone.
1nounmonasteryA house where monks live together.
“The monks at the monastery get up at five o'clock to pray.”
monastery is a religious house.
Greek monasterion means a hermitage, from monos, alone. Monk and monastic come from the same aloneness.
Proto-Indo-European
*men- (small)
Ancient Greek
μοναστήριον — hermitage, monastery
Medieval Latin
monastērium — monastery
Old French
monastere
Middle English
monasterie
English, today
monastery
Built from
From Middle English monasterie, from Old French monastere, from Medieval Latin monastērium (“monastery”), from Ancient Greek μοναστήριον (“hermitage, monastery”), from μοναστήριος (“alone, made alone”) + -ιον (“-ium”), from μονάζω (“to be alone”), from μόνος (“alone”) + -άζω. a doublet of minster.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA