MEANING
A woman who governs an abbey or community of nuns.
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Words that belong together
- mother abbess
- abbess’s chamber
On the page
The abbess received the visitor.
A lamp burned in the abbess’s chamber.
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- abbess
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Usage notes
Primary category: gothic. Forms: Singular abbess; plural abbesses. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.
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