NUN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does nun mean? 

• NUN (noun)
  The noun NUN has 3 senses:

1. a woman religious

2. a buoy resembling a cone

3. the 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet

  Familiarity information: NUN used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NUN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A woman religious

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("nun" 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 "nun"):

Sister ((Roman Catholic Church) a title given to a nun (and used as a form of address))

Instance hyponyms:

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu; Mother Teresa; Mother Theresa; Teresa; Theresa (Indian nun and missionary in the Roman Catholic Church (born of Albanian parents in what is now Macedonia); dedicated to helping the poor in India (1910-1997))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A buoy resembling a cone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

conical buoy; nun; nun buoy

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

buoy (bright-colored; a float attached by rope to the seabed to mark channels in a harbor or underwater hazards)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

alphabetic character; letter; letter of the alphabet (the conventional characters of the alphabet used to represent speech)

Holonyms ("nun" is a member of...):

Hebraic alphabet; Hebrew alphabet; Hebrew script (a Semitic alphabet used since the 5th century BC for writing the Hebrew language (and later for writing Yiddish and Ladino))

 Context examples 

"Don't use such dreadful expressions," replied Meg from the depths of the veil in which she had shrouded herself like a nun sick of the world.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

You have lived the life of a nun: no doubt you are well drilled in religious forms;—Brocklehurst, who I understand directs Lowood, is a parson, is he not?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Then, with four attendants, came the novice, her drooping head wreathed with white blossoms, and, behind, the abbess and her council of older nuns, who were already counting in their minds whether their own bailiff could manage the farms of Twynham, or whether a reeve would be needed beneath him, to draw the utmost from these new possessions which this young novice was about to bring them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Its long, damp passages, its narrow cells and ruined chapel, were to be within her daily reach, and she could not entirely subdue the hope of some traditional legends, some awful memorials of an injured and ill-fated nun.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Great had been the rejoicing amid the Romsey nuns when the Lady Maude Loring had craved admission into their order—for was she not sole child and heiress of the old knight, with farms and fiefs which she could bring to the great nunnery?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Like most young scribblers, she went abroad for her characters and scenery, and banditti, counts, gypsies, nuns, and duchesses appeared upon her stage, and played their parts with as much accuracy and spirit as could be expected.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

While Laurie listlessly watched the procession of priests under their canopies, white-veiled nuns bearing lighted tapers, and some brotherhood in blue chanting as they walked, Amy watched him, and felt a new sort of shyness steal over her, for he was changed, and she could not find the merry-faced boy she left in the moody-looking man beside her.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)