Monastic

How to spell monastic

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce monastic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does monastic mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to monks, nuns, or the secluded religious life of a monastery.

Monastic in a sentence

• The abbey still follows a strict monastic routine of prayer and silence.

• He found the early morning schedule almost monastic in its discipline.

Where does monastic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek monos, which simply meant 'alone' or 'single'. From it came the verb monazein, 'to live alone', and the noun monastes, describing a person who withdraws from the world to live a solitary religious life. The related adjective monastikos meant 'pertaining to a hermit or monk', and it passed into Late Latin as monasticus before reaching English in the 1300s, partly by way of Old French. The same monos root sits inside the everyday words 'monk', 'monastery', 'monopoly' and 'monotone', all carrying that sense of one or single. Knowing the origin is helpful for the spelling: there is a single n and a single t, mirroring the idea of being alone, with the schwa in the first syllable easily tempting writers to add letters that are not there.

How the word is built

• monast- (from Greek monastes: monk, one who lives alone)
• -ic (adjective suffix)