different between monastery vs motherhouse

English

Alternative forms

• monasterie (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French monastere, from Latin monast?rium, from Ancient Greek ??????????? (monast?rion, “hermit's cell”), from ????? (mónos, “alone”). Doublet of minster.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?n?st?i/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?m?n?st??i/, /?m?n?st??i/

Noun

monastery (plural monasteries)

1. Building for housing monks or others who have taken religious vows

Related terms

• monasterial
• monastic
• monasticism

Translations

See also

• abbey
• cloister
• convent
• friary
• minster

Anagrams

• asteronym, myronates, nasometry, oysterman

English

Etymology

mother +? house.

Noun

motherhouse (plural motherhouses)

1. The monastery from which the other 'houses' of a religious order or congregation were (directly or indirectly) founded, often eponymous.

   The Cistercian order is called after its motherhouse Cîteaux in Burgundy, where abbot St. Bernard initiated in 1113 the reform of their branch of the Benedictine order, which has its motherhouse at Monte Cassino

2. The convent which is the seat (and often the above original foundation) of the superior of an order or congregation, and/or on which lower ranking houses (such as priories under an abbot) depend.

Translations

References

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

Anagrams

• housemother