anchorite

[ ang-kuh-rahyt ]
See synonyms for anchorite on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a person who has retired to a solitary place for a life of religious seclusion; hermit.

Origin of anchorite

1
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English anc(h)orite, anachorite, ancorite, conflation of Middle English ancre (from Old English ancra, ancer ) and Old French anacorite or Late Latin anachōrīta, anachōrēta, from Late Greek anachōrētḗs, agent noun derivative of anachōreîn “to withdraw” + -tēs agent suffix

Other words from anchorite

  • an·cho·rit·ic [ang-kuh-rit-ik], /ˌæŋ kəˈrɪt ɪk/, adjective
  • an·cho·rit·i·cal·ly, adverb
  • an·cho·rit·ism [ang-kuh-rahy-tiz-uhm], /ˈæŋ kə raɪˌtɪz əm/, noun

Words Nearby anchorite

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use anchorite in a sentence

  • His philosophy had   made him neither an ascetic nor an anchorite.

    Mary Wollstonecraft | Elizabeth Robins Pennell
  • A description of this anchorite of the rocks will be given in a later chapter.

    Birds of the Rockies | Leander Sylvester Keyser
  • There rushed over him a horror that he could have succumbed so easily to the temptation that befalls every anchorite.

    Robert Annys: Poor Priest | Annie Nathan Meyer
  • You live the life of an anchorite here, never coming to the city, and I remain in retirement, scarcely ever going from the city.

    The Bastonnais | John Lesperance
  • The solitary anchorite was soon supplanted by the cœnobitic establishment, the monastery.

British Dictionary definitions for anchorite

anchorite

/ (ˈæŋkəˌraɪt) /


noun
  1. a person who lives in seclusion, esp a religious recluse; hermit

Origin of anchorite

1
C15: from Medieval Latin anchorīta, from Late Latin anachōrēta, from Greek anakhōrētēs, from anakhōrein to retire, withdraw, from khōra a space

Derived forms of anchorite

  • anchoress, fem n

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