Other forms: nuns
A nun is a woman who has taken vows and lives in a religious community. A Catholic nun, the nuns taught, become a nun.
Strictly a nun takes solemn vows and lives enclosed, while a sister works in the world — a distinction the Church keeps and most people do not. Convents ran much of the education and nursing in Catholic countries for centuries. Note that the Latin nonna was first a respectful term of address for an older woman.
1nounnunA woman who has taken vows and lives in a religious community.
“The nuns ran a small school and grew vegetables behind the convent.”
nun is a religious.
Latin nonna was a term of address for an older woman, probably from a childish word. The religious sense came later.
Latin
nonna — nun, tutor
Old English
nunne — nun
Middle English
nonne
English, today
nun
Built from
From Middle English nonne, nunne, from Old English nunne (“nun”), from Latin nonna (“nun, tutor”), originally (along with masculine form nonnus (“man”)) a term of address for elderly persons, perhaps from imitative of the sound, reminiscent of nana, like papa etc. a doublet of nonna.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA