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Nun

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nun¹

  • /nʌn/
  • /nʊn/ Ireland, Northern England

Sounds like none · Rhymes with -ʌn

Where it comes from

From Middle English nonne, nunne, from Old English nunne (“nun”), from Late Latin nonna (“nun, tutor”), originally (along with masculine form nonnus (“man”)) a term of address for elderly persons, perhaps from children's speech, reminiscent of nana, like papa etc. Doublet of nonna.

noun nuns

  1. A member of a Christian religious community of women who live by certain vows and usually wear a habit, (Roman Catholicism, specifically) those living together in a cloister. Thus, when the nuns came to the mission and we saw that instead of murmuring soft blessings and gliding seraphically over the grass in diaphanous habits, they wore smart blouses and skirts and walked, laughed and talked in low twanging tones very much like our own American missionaries did, we were
  2. broadly A member of a similar female community in other confessions. a Buddhist nun
  3. UK, archaic, slang A prostitute. Why laſt night, as Colonel Kill'em, Sir William Weezy, Lord Frederick Foretop, and I were careleſsly ſliding the Ranelagh round, picking our teeth, after a damn'd muzzy dinner at Boodle's, who ſhould trip by but an abbeſs, well known about town, with a ſmart little nun in her ſuite.
  4. A kind of pigeon with the feathers on its head like the hood of a nun.

nun²

  • /nʊn/
  • /nuːn/

Rhymes with -ʊn, -uːn

Where it comes from

Borrowed from the letter’s name in the respective language. Doublet of nu.

noun nuns · noon · nūn

  1. The fourteenth letter of many Semitic alphabets or abjads (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and others).

nun³

pronoun

  1. pronunciation spelling Pronunciation spelling of nothing.nothing

Nun⁴

Where it comes from

From Hebrew.

proper noun

  1. rare A male given name from Hebrew. And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses.

Nun⁵

proper noun

  1. The languages of the Bamun people of western Cameroon.

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