cloister
Americannoun
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a covered walk, especially in a religious institution, having an open arcade or colonnade usually opening onto a courtyard.
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a courtyard, especially in a religious institution, bordered with such walks.
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a place of religious seclusion, as a monastery or convent.
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any quiet, secluded place.
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life in a monastery or convent.
verb (used with object)
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to confine in a monastery or convent.
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to confine in retirement; seclude.
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to furnish with a cloister or covered walk.
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to convert into a monastery or convent.
noun
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a covered walk, usually around a quadrangle in a religious institution, having an open arcade or colonnade on the inside and a wall on the outside
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(sometimes plural) a place of religious seclusion, such as a monastery
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life in a monastery or convent
verb
Other Word Forms
- cloister-like adjective
- cloisterless adjective
- cloisterlike adjective
Etymology
Origin of cloister
1250–1300; Middle English cloistre < Anglo-French, Old French, blend of cloison partition ( cloisonné ) and clostre (< Latin claustrum barrier ( Late Latin: enclosed place); claustrum )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Even so, she didn’t live in a cloister.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 27, 2025
The centre is described as a series of red brick "pavilions" housing care and social spaces, stitched together by a central timber "cloister".
From BBC • Oct. 19, 2023
To communicate with volunteers and priests, the sisters normally spoke through a turn, a barrel-shaped revolving cabinet used to pass goods into the monastery without violating the cloister.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 19, 2023
Fourteen years later, Catholic women in Los Angeles raised funds to build the sisters a new cloister, chapel and office complex on the same site, designed by celebrated architect Wallace Neff.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 18, 2023
Abbot Mortimer lay in the cloister gardens surrounded by his mice and woodland friends.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
