anchoress.

A woman who withdraws from ordinary life for religious devotion, often living in an enclosed cell.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• anchoress’s cell
• medieval anchoress
• life of an anchoress

On the page

The anchoress received visitors through a small opening.

A surviving text describes the anchoress’s daily prayers.

The church kept records of the medieval anchoress who lived beside it.

Usage notes

Primary category: gothic. Forms: Singular anchoress; plural anchoresses. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.