nun
nounnounpronouncommon in dialogue
- Ireland//nʊn//
- //nʌn//
- //nʊn//
- //nuːn//
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.
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.
Thus, when the nuns came to the mission and we saw that instead of murmuring soft blessings and gliding seraphically over the grass in diaphanous habits, they wore smart blouses and skirts and walked, laughed and talked in low twanging tones very much like our own American missionaries did, we were very disappointed.
- 2
A member of a similar female community in other confessions.
a Buddhist nun
- 3
archaicA prostitute.
Why laſt night, as Colonel Kill'em, Sir William Weezy, Lord Frederick Foretop, and I were careleſsly ſliding the Ranelagh round, picking our teeth, after a damn'd muzzy dinner at Boodle's, who ſhould trip by but an abbeſs, well known about town, with a ſmart little nun in her ſuite.
"I mean to inform you," answered the Oxonian, with a grin on his face, "that those three nymphs, who have so much dazzled your optics, are three nuns, and the plump female is Mother .... of great notoriety [...]"
- 4
A kind of pigeon with the feathers on its head like the hood of a nun.
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.
noun
- 1
The fourteenth letter of many Semitic alphabets or abjads (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and others).
Etymology
Borrowed from the letter’s name in the respective language. Doublet of nu.
pronoun
- 1
Variant of nothingPronunciation spelling of nothing.
Forms
- plural
- nuns
nun · A member of a Christian religious community of women who live by certain vows and usually wear a habit, (Roman Catholicism, specifically) those…
Nun · The languages of the Bamun people of western Cameroon.nurse · A person involved in providing direct care for the sick:…Nurse · A surname.