Dictionary

cenobite en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• sĕnʹə-bīt'
• /ˈsiː.nəˌbaɪt/
• sēʹnə-bīt'
• /ˈsɛn.əˌbaɪt/
• (US) audio

Etymology

From Old French cenobite or Ecclesiastical Latin coenobīta, from coenobium, from Ancient Greek κοινόβιον (koinóbion, “community life, convent”), from κοινός (koinós, “common”) + βίος (bíos, “life”).

Meanings

1. A new or recent member of a Greek monastic religious order; a caloyer.
   • Lamprecht knew very well how the war was going and was perfunctory in his rounding up of Jews and cenobites. 1980, Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers, page 418:
2. A monk who lives in a religious community, rather than in solitude.
   • To deprive a gregarious creature of companionship is to maim it, to outrage its nature. The prisoner and the cenobite are aware that the herd exists beyond their exile; they are an aspect of it. But when the herd no longer exists, there is, for the herd creature, no longer entity. He is a part of no whole, a freak without a place. 1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 208:
3. A torturous demon creature made famous by the Hellraiser series.

Forms

Coordinates

eremite

Deriveds

cenobitism · cenobitical · cenobitic

Relateds

nun · religious · monk

Translations (11)

grc κοινοβιάτης (monk who lives in a religious community, rather than in solitude) · el κοινοβίτης (monk who lives in a religious community, rather than in solitude) · nl cenobiet mkloosterling (monk who lives in a religious community, rather than in solitude) · pt cenobita (monk who lives in a religious community, rather than in solitude) · el κοινοβιάτης (monk who lives in a religious community, rather than in solitude) · it cenobita (monk who lives in a religious community, rather than in solitude) · es cenobita (monk who lives in a religious community, rather than in solitude) · pl cenobita (monk who lives in a religious community, rather than in solitude) · ru кинови́т (monk who lives in a religious community, rather than in solitude) · ca cenobita (monk who lives in a religious community, rather than in solitude) · fr cénobite (monk who lives in a religious community, rather than in solitude)