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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

monk.

A male member of a monastic order who has devoted his life for religious service.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/mʌŋk//mɔŋk/
  1. A male member of a monastic order who has devoted his life for religious service.

  2. In earlier usage, an eremite or hermit devoted to solitude, as opposed to a cenobite, who lived communally.

  3. Someone who leads an isolated life; a loner, a hermit.

    slang
  4. An unmarried man who does not have sexual relationships.

    slang
  5. A judge.

    slang
  6. An inkblot.

    archaic
  7. A South American monkey (Pithecia monachus); also applied to other species, as Cebus xanthosternos.

  8. The bullfinch, common bullfinch, European bullfinch, or Eurasian bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula).

  9. The monkfish.

  10. A fuse for firing mines.

    historical
Where this word comes from

From Middle English monk, from Old English munuc, from Proto-West Germanic *munik, from Late Latin monicus, variant of monachus, from Ancient Greek μοναχός (monakhós, “single, solitary”), from μόνος (mónos, “alone”).

verb/mʌŋk//mɔŋk/
  1. To be a monk.

  2. To act like a monk; especially to be contemplative.

  3. To monkey or meddle; to behave in a manner that is not systematic.

  4. To be intoxicated or confused.

  5. To attach so that it sticks out.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English monk, from Old English munuc, from Proto-West Germanic *munik, from Late Latin monicus, variant of monachus, from Ancient Greek μοναχός (monakhós, “single, solitary”), from μόνος (mónos, “alone”).

noun/mʌŋk//mɔŋk/
  1. A monkey.

    colloquial
Where this word comes from

By shortening.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.