Convent: A Community of Nuns, and the Building They Share

A convent is a community of people under religious vows, in modern English almost always women. The word says nothing about gender or seclusion on its own: it means an assembly, and the same Latin verb gives us convene and convention.

• A community of nuns. *She entered a convent at nineteen.*
• The building they occupy. *The convent stands above the village.*
• A religious house of either sex (historical). *A Franciscan convent.*

Word forms

How it is used in a sentence

• The convent runs a school next door.Many were founded for teaching or nursing.
• She was educated at a convent school.A common British and Irish phrase.
• The convent was dissolved in 1539.During the dissolution of the monasteries in England.

Religious houses compared

• Convent — a community, in modern use usually of nuns
• Monastery — a community of monks, and sometimes used of any such house
• Abbey — headed by an abbot or abbess, with a degree of independence
• Priory — headed by a prior or prioress, often subordinate to an abbey
• Friary — a house of friars, who traditionally worked among people rather than withdrawing

From Latin *conventus*, an assembly, from *convenire*, to come together — the same verb that gives convene, convenient and convention. A convent is, in its bones, simply a gathering.