nun

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.

• enPR: nŭn, IPA^(key): /nʌn/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• (Northern England, Ireland) IPA^(key): /nʊn/
• Homophone: none
• Rhymes: -ʌn

nun (plural 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.

   Synonyms: sister, moniale, sistren, cloistress

   Antonyms: brother, friar, monk, frater

   • 1988, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions, Faber & Faber Limited (2021), page 258:

     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 very disappointed.

2. (by extension) A member of a similar female community in other confessions.

   a Buddhist nun

3. (archaic, British, slang) A prostitute.[1]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:prostitute

   • 1770, Samuel Foote, The Lame Lover, a Comedy in Three Acts. […], London: […] Paul Vaillant; and sold by P[eter] Elmsly […]; and Robinson and Roberts, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 12:

     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.

   • 1881, Pierce Egan, chapter 8, in Life in London‎, page 205:

     "I mean to inform you," answered the Oxonian, with a grin on his face, "that those three nymphs, who have so much dazzled your optics, are three nuns, and the plump female is Mother .... of great notoriety [...]"

4. A kind of pigeon with the feathers on its head like the hood of a nun.

In Roman Catholicism, a distinction is often drawn (especially by members of female religious orders) between nuns and sisters, the former being cloistered and devoted primarily to prayer, the latter being more active, doing work such as operating hospitals, caring for the poor, or teaching.

• See Poor Clare

• nun buoy
• nun-coloured
• nunhood
• nunlike, nun-like
• nun moth
• nunnery
• Nun of the Visitation

• (member of a religious community): nonnus
• (prostitute): abbess, abbot, Covent Garden nun

• Nun on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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

• noon
• nūn

• enPR: nŏŏn, IPA^(key): /nʊn/ or enPR: no͞on, IPA^(key): /nuːn/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊn, -uːn

nun (plural nuns)

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

• Appendix:Hebrew alphabet

• Nun (letter) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

nun

1. Pronunciation spelling of nothing.

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “nun”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• ñun (adverb)

• IPA^(key): /ˈnun/, [ˈnũŋ]

From Latin nōn.

nun

1. not, no (used to make negatives)

nun

1. in a/an (contraction of en + un)

nún

1. (anatomy) nose

• Richard Nci Diarra, Lexique bambara-français-anglais, December 13, 2010

• non (in older Americanist literature)

Cognates: Navajo nooʼ, Western Apache non, noi, Plains Apache nǫǫ.

• IPA^(key): /nòn/

nun

1. grave, burial place
2. cache

nun

1. parent

Borrowed from German nun.

• IPA^(key): [nun]
• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: nun

nun

1. now

From Old Galician-Portuguese non, from Latin nōn (“not”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈnun/

nun

1. Alternative form of non (“no, not”)

• Valeš, Miroslav (2021) Diccionariu de A Fala: lagarteiru, mañegu, valverdeñu (web)‎, 2nd edition, Minde, Portugal: CIDLeS, published 2022, →ISBN

From Phoenician [Term?].

• IPA^(key): /ˈnun/, [ˈnun]
• Rhymes: -un
• Syllabification^(key): nun

nun

1. nun (fourteenth letter of the Hebrew and Phoenician scripts and the Northwest Semitic abjad)

From contraction of preposition en (“in”) + masculine article un (“a, one”).

• IPA^(key): /nuŋ/

nun m (feminine nunha, masculine plural nuns, feminine plural nunhas)

1. in a, in one

• IPA^(key): /nuːn/

• Audio

  (file)

From Middle High German nu, nū, nuo with a secondary final -n, already occasionally in Middle High German nuon, from Old High German nu, from Proto-West Germanic *nū.

• nu (colloquial; otherwise archaic)

nun

1. now, at this moment
2. now, then; expressing a logical or temporal consequence

   Wir haben abgewaschen, nun müssen wir noch abtrocknen.

   We've washed up, now we must dry [the dishes].

   Was bedeuten nun die geschilderten Entwicklungen für unser Land?

   Now what do the aforementioned developments mean for our country?

3. unstressed and expletive, used for minor emphasis

   Was soll das nun heißen?

   What's that supposed to mean now?

• Although the adverb is similar and akin to English “now”, German nun is not commonly used in a strictly temporal sense, meaning “at this moment”. For that, see jetzt.

nun

1. now, well, so

   Nun, das ist eine schwierige Frage.

   Well, that's a tough question.

Clipping of nun daß or nun da.

nun

1. (literary or dated colloquial) now that, given that it has occurred that the circumstances do not withstand that …

From Arabic نُون (nūn).

• IPA^(key): /nún/
  • (Standard Kano Hausa) IPA^(key): [nɪ́ŋ]

nun f

1. nun (letter of the Arabic alphabet)

Borrowed from Esperanto nun, German nun. Originally replaced with nunk, it was eventually taken back.

• IPA^(key): /nun/

nun

1. now, at present, at this time

   Synonym: nunk (archaic)

From Hebrew נו״ן (nun).

• IPA^(key): /ˈnun/
• Rhymes: -un
• Hyphenation: nùn

nun f (invariable)

1. nun, specifically:
   1. the name of the Phoenician-script letter 𐤍
   2. the name of the Hebrew-script letter נ/ן
   3. the name of the Arabic-script letter ن

nun

1. canoe

Akin to Italian noi, from Latin nos.

nun

1. we

nun

1. Nonstandard spelling of nún.
2. Nonstandard spelling of nùn.

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

nun

1. not

See nom.

nun oblique singular, m (oblique plural nuns, nominative singular nuns, nominative plural nun)

1. (Anglo-Norman) Alternative form of nom

Reduced form of negun.

nun m (oblique and nominative feminine singular nune)

1. Alternative form of negun

nun

1. Alternative form of negun

• (Arabic) نٌ, نُنۡ
• (Bengali) নুন
• (Myanmar) နုန်
• (Hanifi) 𐴕𐴟𐴕 (nun)

Compare Bengali নুন (nun).

• IPA^(key): [nun]

nun

1. salt

• nomok

Inherited from Late Latin nonnus.

nun m (plural nuni, feminine equivalent nună)

1. the godfather at a wedding

• naș

• nuntă

• non, unn, 'un, nn'

From Latin nōn.

• IPA^(key): /nun/

nun

1. not

Cognate with Persian نان (nân).

nun

1. bread

Akin to Persian نان (nân, “bread”), see there for more.

nun

1. bread

From Arabic نُون (nūn).

nun

1. Letter of the Arabic alphabet: ن
   • Previous: م
   • Next: و

nun (nominative plural nuns)

1. message

• ñun (used alongside "nun" in Urban Wolof)

nun

1. we (first-person plural subject pronoun)

• IPA^(key): [ˈnun]
• Hyphenation: nun

nun

1. Alternative form of nan