| Noun | 1. | monasticism - asceticism as a form of religious life; usually conducted in a community under a common rule and characterized by celibacy and poverty and obedienceausterity, nonindulgence, asceticism - the trait of great self-denial (especially refraining from worldly pleasures) eremitism - monasticism characterized by solitude in which the social dimension of life is sacrificed to the primacy of religious experience |