nun

a woman of a religious order: My teacher in Catholic school was a nun.

Not to be confused with:

no one – nobody: No one understands the problem.

none – not one; not any: None of them attended the event.; nothing: She looked for a reason but found none.; to no extent; no way

nun¹

(nŭn)

A woman who belongs to a religious order or congregation devoted to active service or meditation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

[Middle English, from Old English nunne and from Old French nonne, both from Late Latin nonna, feminine of nonnus, tutor, monk.]

nun²

(no͝on)

The 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. See Table at alphabet.

[Mishnaic Hebrew nûn, of Phoenician origin; see nwn in Semitic roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

nun

(nʌn)

1. (Ecclesiastical Terms) a female member of a religious order

2. (Breeds) (sometimes capital) a variety of domestic fancy pigeon usually having a black-and-white plumage with a ridged peak or cowl of short white feathers

[Old English nunne, from Church Latin nonna, from Late Latin: form of address used for an elderly woman]

ˈnunlike adj

nun

(nʊn)

(Letters of the Alphabet (Foreign)) the 14th letter in the Hebrew alphabet (נ or, at the end of a word, ן), transliterated as n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

nun¹

(nʌn)

n.

a woman who is a member of a religious order, esp. one bound by vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

[before 900; Middle English, Old English nunne < Medieval Latin nonna, feminine of nonnus monk]

nun′like`, adj.

nun²

(nun, nʊn)

n.

the 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[1875–80; < Hebrew nūn literally, fish]

nun

- Derived from Latin nonna, the feminine of nonnus, "monk," originally a title given to an elderly person.

nun

noun sister, Bride of Christ He was taught by the Catholic nuns

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

رَاهِبَةٌراهِبَه

jeptiška

nonne

Nonne

μοναχή καλόγρια

monja religiosa

nunna

nonne religieuse religieux

časna sestra

nunna

monaca suora

尼僧

수녀

moterų vienuolynasvienuolė

mūķene

mníška

nuna

nunna

แม่ชี

rahibe

nữ tu sĩ

修女尼姑

nun

[nʌn] N → monja f, religiosa f
to become a nun → hacerse monja, meterse (a) monja

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

nun

[ˈnʌn] n → religieuse f, sœur f
She's a nun → Elle est religieuse.

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

nun

n → Nonne f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

nun

[nʌn] n → suora, monaca

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

nun

(nan) noun

a member of a female religious community.

ˈnunnery – plural ˈnunneries – noun

a house in which a group of nuns live; a convent.

nun

→ رَاهِبَةٌ jeptiška nonne Nonne μοναχή monja nunna nonne časna sestra suora 尼僧 수녀 non nonne zakonnica freira монахиня nunna แม่ชี rahibe nữ tu sĩ 修女

nun

n. monja, hermana religiosa.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

I am a nun from the Spinning Convent,[10] and my mother when she died left me this apple.

She made the youth rise, embraced him, and said, 'Know, my son, that it is I who sent the nun to your mother and caused you to be born, and with you the horse, with whose help you will be able to free the world from the monster.

View in context

"The sacked nun is in one of her tantrums," muttered the populace; and that was the end of it.

View in context

I had thought to see a tall, meagre, yellow, conventual image in black, with a close white cap, bandaged under the chin like a nun's head-gear; whereas, there stood by me a little and roundly formed woman, who might indeed be older than I, but was still young; she could not, I thought, be more than six or seven and twenty; she was as fair as a fair Englishwoman; she had no cap; her hair was nut-brown, and she wore it in curls; pretty her features were not, nor very soft, nor very regular, but neither were they in any degree plain, and I already saw cause to deem them expressive.

View in context

But she should be dressed as a nun; I think she looks almost what you call a Quaker; I would dress her as a nun in my picture.

View in context

There, in his father's room, at midnight, the fire was roaring and the gas blazing; the papers, the sacred papers - to lay a hand on which was criminal - had all been taken off and piled along the floor; a cloth was spread, and a supper laid, upon the business table; and in his father's chair a woman, habited like a nun, sat eating.

View in context

"You are going to be a nun," he went on, "in a cell--for life--with a gown and white veil?"

View in context

It was none the less a fact, however, that in the eyes of the very men who spoke thus, the scarlet letter had the effect of the cross on a nun's bosom It imparted to the wearer a kind of sacredness, which enabled her to walk securely amid all peril.

View in context

Finally, one day, an old fiacre stopped in front of the door and a nun stepped out.

View in context

She had made for herself a dress of some brown stuff like a nun's habit and had a crooked stick and carried all her belongings tied up in a handkerchief.

View in context

A monotonous, silent city, deriving an earthy flavour throughout from its Cathedral crypt, and so abounding in vestiges of monastic graves, that the Cloisterham children grow small salad in the dust of abbots and abbesses, and make dirt-pies of nuns and friars; while every ploughman in its outlying fields renders to once puissant Lord Treasurers, Archbishops, Bishops, and such-like, the attention which the Ogre in the story-book desired to render to his unbidden visitor, and grinds their bones to make his bread.

View in context

"I'll really call in on the nuns," he said to the officers who watched him smilingly, and he rode off by the winding path down the hill.

View in context

Noun	1.	nun - a woman religious religious - a member of a religious order who is bound by vows of poverty and chastity and obedience Sister - (Roman Catholic Church) a title given to a nun (and used as a form of address); "the Sisters taught her to love God"
	2.	nun - a buoy resembling a cone conical buoy, nun buoy buoy - bright-colored; a float attached by rope to the seabed to mark channels in a harbor or underwater hazards
	3.	nun - the 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet Hebraic alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew script - a Semitic alphabet used since the 5th century BC for writing the Hebrew language (and later for writing Yiddish and Ladino) alphabetic character, letter of the alphabet, letter - the conventional characters of the alphabet used to represent speech; "his grandmother taught him his letters"

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