monk
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A male member of a monastic order who has devoted his life for religious service.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
muhngkIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmʌŋk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A male member of a monastic order who has devoted his life for religious service.
In earlier usage, an eremite or hermit devoted to solitude, as opposed to a cenobite, who lived communally.
slang
Someone who leads an isolated life; a loner, a hermit.
A South American monkey (Pithecia monachus); also applied to other species, as Cebus xanthosternos.
The bullfinch, common bullfinch, European bullfinch, or Eurasian bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula).
The monkfish.
verb
To monkey or meddle; to behave in a manner that is not systematic.
To be intoxicated or confused.
transitive
To attach so that it sticks out.
To act like a monk; especially to be contemplative.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A male member of a monastic order who has devoted his life for religious service.
Used this way, monk is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use monk
- “A quiet monk walked through the peaceful monastery gardens.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: male member of a monastic order who has devoted his life for religious service
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.