English Explanatory Dictionary

nun

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A member of a Christian religious community of women who live by certain vows and usually wear a habit, (Roman Catholicism, specifically) those living together in a cloister.
  2. A member of a similar female community in other confessions.
  3. A prostitute.
  4. A kind of pigeon with the feathers on its head like the hood of a nun.
noun
  1. The fourteenth letter of many Semitic alphabets or abjads (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and others).
pron
  1. Pronunciation spelling of nothing.
name
  1. A male given name from Hebrew.
name
  1. The languages of the Bamun people of western Cameroon.

Pronunciation

nŭn /nʌn/ En-au-nun.ogg /nʊn/ nŏŏn no͞on /nuːn/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-nun (oo).wav

Word forms

nun nuns noon nūn

Etymology

From Middle English nonne, nunne, from Old English nunne (“nun”), from Late Latin nonna (“nun, tutor”), originally (along with masculine form nonnus (“man”)) a term of address for elderly persons, perhaps from children's speech, reminiscent of nana, like papa etc. Doublet of nonna.

Synonyms

sister moniale sistren cloistress abandons alley cat almah bangtail Bankside lady bargirl bat beotch blouze blowen blowsabella brass nail brasser brass broad business girl calico queen callet cat chippy chromo coaster cockatrice cocotte comfort girl comfort woman commoner Covent Garden nun creature of the night croshabell daughter of joy dollymop doxy drab Dutch widow escort fille de joie flap floozie fornicatrix frail sister Fulham virgin gamester gay lady geebag gillian gill girl rented overnight good-time girl GRO hackney harlot Haymarket ware hireling 'ho hoer

Antonyms

brother friar monk frater

Related words

nonnus abbess abbot Covent Garden nun

Derived words

corporate nun dry as a nun's cunt dry as a nun's nasty nunate nunation nunbird nun buoy nun-coloured nunhood nunless nunlet nunlike nun-like nunly Nun Monkton nun moth nunnation nunnery nunnish Nun of the Visitation nunship nunsploitation nun's thread unnun
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on N Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary