abbey

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abbey^¹

/ˈæbi/ Australia, Canada, US
/ˈabɪj/ British, Southern, Standard
/ˈabi/ Northern England, Wales
/ˈabe/ Scotland
/-bɪ/ Scotland
/-bi/ Scotland
/ˈɛbi/ New Zealand

Sounds like Abby · Rhymes with -æbi

Where it comes from

From A.D. 1250 in Middle English abbey, abbeye (“convent headed by an abbot”) (compare archaic English abbaye), itself borrowed from Old French abaïe, abbaïe, abeïe, abbeïe (Modern French abbaye) from Late Latin or Ecclesiastical Latin abbātia, from Classical Latin abbās (“abbot”). Doublet of abbacy and Opatija. See abbot.

noun abbeys · abby

The office or dominion of an abbot or abbess.
A monastery or society of people, secluded from the world and devoted to religion and celibacy, which is headed by an abbot or abbess; also, the monastic building or buildings. Near-synonym: convent
Similar: convent
The church of a monastery. No, we can't have alphabetical seating in the abbey. You'd have Iraq and Iran next to each other (laugh track)... Plus Israel and Jordan all sitting in the same pew (laugh track)! We'd be in danger of starting World War III (laugh track)!
British, English A residence that was previously an abbatial building.
dialectal The abele or white poplar (Populus alba). Ab'bey. The great white poplar: one of the varieties of the Populus alba.

Abbey^²

proper noun

A diminutive of the female given name Abigail, from Hebrew.
Similar: Abi, Abby
A diminutive of the male given name Albert, from the Germanic languages.
A British surname.
London Westminster Abbey.
Scotland The precincts of the Abbey of Holyrood.
A hamlet in Dunkeswell parish, East Devon district, Devon, England, probably named for the local abbey (OS grid ref ST1410).
A small village south-east of Tuam, County Galway, Ireland (Irish grid ref M 5043).
A village west of Portumna, County Galway (Irish grid ref M 7305).
A village in the Rural Municipality of Miry Creek, Saskatchewan, Canada, named after a farm in Ireland.
A suburb of Busselton, Western Australia, named after landholder D. Abbey.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: convent, westminster, nunnery, monastery, nun, temple, father, ebay, abu, melrose, abi, gabby, abe, glastonbury, tewkesbury, woburn

Translations

Every language

noun monastery headed by an abbot

Español	abadía
한국어	수도원 sudowon, 수원 suwon, 승원 seung'won, 승원(僧園)) seung'won
日本語	修道院 shūdōin
中文	修道院 xiūdàoyuàn
Português	abadia
Français	abbaye
Deutsch	Abtei
Italiano	abbazia
Ελληνικά	αβαείο avaeío, μοναστήρι monastíri
Română	abație
Русский	абба́тство abbátstvo, монасты́рь monastýrʹ
Tiếng Việt	tu viện, nhà tu
العربية	دَيْر dayr

noun church of a monastery

Español	abadía
Português	abadia
Français	abbaye
Deutsch	Klosterkirche
Italiano	abbazia
Română	abație

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MLA

"abbey." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/abbey. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

abbey. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/abbey

Chicago

"abbey." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/abbey.

BibTeX

@misc{abbey_2026,
  title = {abbey},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/abbey},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}