ascetic
a person who dedicates their life to a pursuit of contemplative ideals and practices extreme self-denial or self-mortification for religious reasons.
a person who leads an austerely simple life, especially one who abstains from the normal pleasures of life or shuns material satisfaction.
(in the early Christian church) a monk; hermit.
relating to asceticism, the doctrine that one can reach a high spiritual state through the practice of extreme self-denial or self-mortification.
rigorously abstinent; austere: an ascetic existence.
exceedingly strict or severe in religious exercises or self-mortification.
Origin of ascetic
1Other words for ascetic
Opposites for ascetic
Other words from ascetic
- as·cet·i·cal·ly, adverb
- non·as·cet·ic, noun, adjective
- non·as·cet·i·cal, adjective
- non·as·cet·i·cal·ly, adverb
- pre·as·cet·ic, adjective
- pseu·do·as·cet·ic, adjective
- pseu·do·as·cet·i·cal, adjective
- pseu·do·as·cet·i·cal·ly, adverb
- un·as·cet·ic, adjective
- un·as·cet·i·cal·ly, adverb
Words that may be confused with ascetic
Words Nearby ascetic
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use ascetic in a sentence
Not surprisingly, this did not sit well with the ascetic early Christians.
Soyinka is a food and wine enthusiast, but he also sinks easily into a kind of ascetic mode and fasts regularly.
Nigeria’s Larger-Than-Life Nobel Laureate Chronicles a Fascinating Life | Chimamanda Adichie | August 9, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAn Arab legend has it that the intoxicating effects of hashish were discovered by an ascetic monk in 1155.
Maybe this is better than self-denying ascetic teenage subculture anarchism.
He works around an impossibly long and lean ideal, but never allows his work to grow ascetic and cold.
Balenciaga and Designer Nicolas Ghesquiere Split | Robin Givhan | November 5, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
His cowl was thrown back, revealing his pale, ascetic countenance and shaven head.
St. Martin's Summer | Rafael SabatiniTake him in repose, and he looked a lank ascetic who dreamed of a happy land where flagellation was a joy and pain a panacea.
You Never Know Your Luck, Complete | Gilbert ParkerIn appearance, Terry was an ill-adjusted compromise between an ascetic and a young man about town.
Mushroom Town | Oliver OnionsThe Nazarenes are archological and ascetic; the Dsseldorf school is insipid in a modern way, feeble, colourless, and sentimental.
The History of Modern Painting, Volume 1 (of 4) | Richard MutherHis philosophy had made him neither an ascetic nor an anchorite.
Mary Wollstonecraft | Elizabeth Robins Pennell
British Dictionary definitions for ascetic
/ (əˈsɛtɪk) /
a person who practises great self-denial and austerities and abstains from worldly comforts and pleasures, esp for religious reasons
(in the early Christian Church) a monk
rigidly abstinent or abstemious; austere
of or relating to ascetics or asceticism
intensely rigorous in religious austerities
Origin of ascetic
1Derived forms of ascetic
- ascetically, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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