cloister

Meaning

Noun

1. A covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that surround a quadrangle; especially:
2. A covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that surround a quadrangle; especially:
3. A place, especially a monastery or convent, devoted to religious seclusion.
4. (figuratively) The monastic life.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To become a Roman Catholic religious.
2. (transitive) To confine in a cloister, voluntarily or not.
3. (intransitive) To deliberately withdraw from worldly things.
4. (transitive) To provide with a cloister or cloisters.
5. (transitive) To protect or isolate.

Synonyms

monastery

convent

abbey

nunnery

religious residence

priory

gallery

corridor

seclude

sequestrate

temple

monastic life

religious community

hallway

Translations

cloître

chiostro

klooster

claustro

Kreuzgang

Kloster

μοναστήρι

monastero

monastère

manastır

couvent

monasterio

monasterium

claustre

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈklɔɪstə/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: cloistre

In summary

Recorded since about 1300 as Middle English cloistre, borrowed from Old French cloistre, clostre, or via Old English clauster, both from Medieval Latin claustrum (“portion of monastery closed off to laity”), from Latin claustrum (“place shut in, bar, bolt, enclosure”), a derivation of the past participle of claudere (“to close”). Doublet of claustrum.