monastic 1 of 2

monastic

2 of 2

noun

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of monastic
Adjective
The luxurious estate was built in 1652 on what’s known as a monastic grange — a.k.a. acreage that once belonged to a monastery. Sezin Devi Koehler, EW.com, 16 Jan. 2025 Gradually, my life became sumptuary and monastic, but this was more or less a survival tactic, since my own bouts of addiction had, throughout my twenties, left me with a contrail of two suicide attempts. Barrett Swanson, Harper's Magazine, 2 Jan. 2025
Noun
Buddhist organizations, whose members are also known to skew older, have been trying to connect with younger people by updating the image of monastics, usually known for their no-nonsense asceticism. Koh Ewe, TIME, 13 May 2024 Over the past 2,000 years, Buddhist teachings have encountered distortions and alterations due to mistranslation and misinterpretation of Buddha-dharma by Buddhist patriarchs, eminent monastics, and Buddhist scholars. Jon Stojan, USA TODAY, 25 July 2023 See All Example Sentences for monastic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for monastic
Adjective
  • While Mathu is an ascetic loner, Malby was a hedonistic womanizer.
    Matthew Carey, Deadline, 20 Feb. 2025
  • By the 18th century, the 13 major ascetic akharas, or sects of Hindu priests, played a central role in Kumbh Mela rituals.
    Aakash Hassan, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • But degraded conventual forces could drive Putin to other means of exerting force.
    Matt Seyler, ABC News, 10 May 2022
  • The Rev. Brad Heckathorne, a Conventual Franciscan friar, performed the ceremony at the chapel at Duke University.
    New York Times, New York Times, 23 Apr. 2017
Noun
  • Every morning, the monks gathered there, arranging themselves on the long stone benches, to discuss the matters of the day.
    Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 17 Mar. 2025
  • Unlike a synod of bishops, this will be a unique gathering of bishops, clergy, monks, friars, nuns and lay men and women.
    Christopher Lamb, CNN, 15 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • Obama has retreated into monkish silence, broken only for special occasions such as celebrity deaths and the recording of Bruce Springsteen podcasts.
    Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 17 July 2024
  • Cillian Murphy is not sitting at home in monkish penury.
    Vulture, Vulture, 3 Feb. 2024
Adjective
  • The abrupt appearance and disappearance of the mendicant pilgrim is part of her power.
    Seyward Darby, Longreads, 5 Apr. 2023
  • No doubt the traditional tunic and mantle of his mendicant religious order met some standard of austerity when they were adopted in the Middle Ages.
    Nicholas Frankovich, National Review, 2 Jan. 2021
Noun
  • To get in touch with the miraculous Francis, the folkloric Francis, read the Fioretti, or The Little Flowers of St. Francis, a 14th-century collection of tales about the saint and his friars.
    James Parker, The Atlantic, 10 Jan. 2025
  • She will be expected to support communities including monks, nuns, and friars who live according to specific spiritual rules such as Benedictines and Franciscans.
    Kevin Lynn, Newsweek, 6 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • Anand is a neurologist and the author of The Mind Electric, out in June 2025 Within the walls of a hospital, privacy is sacred—the intimate details of someone’s body and illness are meant to be as carefully guarded, as quietly delivered, as a sacramental confession.
    Pria Anand, TIME, 18 Feb. 2025
  • After the surgeon general’s warning on alcohol, people of faith should rethink sacramental wine, writes guest columnist Eli Federman.
    Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 14 Jan. 2025
Noun
  • The end result was a new brand of ecclesiastics and lay Catholics who felt comfortable detaching themselves from Franco’s regime, or even fighting it head-on in a variety of forums, including student movements, intellectual circles, unions, political parties, and the media.
    Victor Pérez-Díaz, Foreign Affairs, 6 Dec. 2013
  • Of all the precious goods accumulated by the rulers and ecclesiastics of late medieval Ethiopia, the most charged of all were books.
    Peter Brown, The New York Review of Books, 24 Sep. 2020

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Cite this Entry

“Monastic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/monastic. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.

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