Abbey

How to spell abbey

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce abbey

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does abbey mean?

1. nounA building or group of buildings housing a community of monks or nuns under an abbot or abbess, or a church that was once part of such a community.

Abbey in a sentence

• The ruined abbey on the hill draws thousands of tourists each summer.

• Monks lived and worked at the abbey for nearly four hundred years.

Where does abbey come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word travels back to the Aramaic word 'abba', which simply meant 'father' and was adopted into early Christian Greek and then Latin as 'abbas', the title given to the head of a monastery, our 'abbot'. From 'abbas' Latin built 'abbatia', meaning the office or household of an abbot, and that became 'abbeie' in Old French. English took it from French in the 1200s to name the building and community of monks or nuns governed by an abbot or abbess. The double 'b' that often trips writers is a faithful echo of the Latin 'abbatia', preserving the doubled consonant of the original. The same 'abba' root still sits inside 'abbot' and 'abbess', which is a useful reminder that the doubled b belongs to the whole family.

How the word is built

• abb- (from abbas: abbot, father)
• -ey (place/collective suffix, from Old French -aie)