monastery

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A community of persons, especially monks, bound by vows to a religious life and often living in partial or complete seclusion.
2. n. The dwelling place of such a community.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A house or other place of residence occupied in common by persons seeking religious seclusion from the world: commonly applied to such a house exclusively used by monks. The term, however, strictly includes the abbey, the priory, the nunnery, and the friary, and in this broad use is synonymous with convent. Monasteries in the Christian church were probably first established in the fourth century. St. Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century established a monastic rule which has been the foundation of nearly all the rules which govern monastic vows. Vows under different rules were made from the beginning of Christianity. The number of monasteries in Europe was much diminished at the Reformation, when their rich estates were in part appropriated by sovereigns to their own use, and in part transferred to universities and other educational institutions, etc. We owe to the monasteries the first definite beginnings or revival of civilization in many countries, especially Germany and France, almost all the missionary work of the early middle ages, and the preservation of nearly all ancient classical and early medieval literature. The monastic life has been practised from pre-Christian times among the Buddhists. See rule.

Wiktionary

1. n. Place of residence for members of a religious community (especially monks).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A house of religious retirement, or of secusion from ordinary temporal concerns, especially for monks; -- more rarely applied to such a house for females.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the residence of a religious community