MONK

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IPA (US):

• MONK (noun)
  The noun MONK has 2 senses:

1. a male religious living in a cloister and devoting himself to contemplation and prayer and work

2. United States jazz pianist who was one of the founders of the bebop style (1917-1982)

  Familiarity information: MONK used as a noun is rare.

• MONK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A male religious living in a cloister and devoting himself to contemplation and prayer and work

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

monastic; monk

Hypernyms ("monk" is a kind of...):

religious (a member of a religious order who is bound by vows of poverty and chastity and obedience)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "monk"):

Brother ((Roman Catholic Church) a title given to a monk and used as form of address)

Carthusian (a member of the Carthusian order)

Cistercian; Trappist (member of an order of monks noted for austerity and a vow of silence)

Instance hyponyms:

Bacon; Roger Bacon (English scientist and Franciscan monk who stressed the importance of experimentation; first showed that air is required for combustion and first used lenses to correct vision (1220-1292))

Benedict; Saint Benedict; St. Benedict (Italian monk who founded the Benedictine order about 540 (480-547))

Gregor Mendel; Johann Mendel; Mendel (Augustinian monk and botanist whose experiments in breeding garden peas led to his eventual recognition as founder of the science of genetics (1822-1884))

Pelagius (a British or Irish monk who denied the doctrines of original sin and predestination and defended human goodness and free will; his views were declared heretical by the Council of Ephesus in 431 (circa 360-418))

Sense 2

Meaning:

United States jazz pianist who was one of the founders of the bebop style (1917-1982)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Monk; Thelonious Monk; Thelonious Sphere Monk

Instance hypernyms:

jazz musician; jazzman (a musician who plays or composes jazz music)

 Context examples 

Underneath, in the porch of the Abbey, the monks had gathered to give him a last God-speed.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Monk’s pepper may affect levels of reproductive hormones in the blood.

(Monk’s pepper, NCI Dictionary)

Monk's pepper may affect levels of reproductive hormones in the blood.

(Chaste Berry, NCI Dictionary)

Also called monk’s pepper and Vitex.

(Chaste tree berry, NCI Dictionary)

Here an ancient monastery, whence the solemn chanting of the monks came down to them.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

A courtesy title of reverence, as for church dignitaries, officers of monasteries, monks, confessors, and especially priests.

(Father, NCI Thesaurus)

Catherine, humbled and ashamed, was going to apologize for her question, but he prevented her by saying, Novels are all so full of nonsense and stuff; there has not been a tolerably decent one come out since Tom Jones, except The Monk; I read that t'other day; but as for all the others, they are the stupidest things in creation.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I have learned it by looking from my own chamber window and marking these poor monks of the priory, their weary life, their profitless round.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So he remained while the senior monks filed slowly and sedately into the chamber seating themselves upon the long oaken benches which lined the wall on either side.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I have seen him ere now, with monk's gown trussed to his knees, over his sandals in blood in the fore-front of the battle.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)