What does "cluniac" mean?

A monk of the reformed branch of the Benedictine order, founded in 910 at Cluny (or Clugny) in France.

Cluniac

Common synonyms include: benedictine, cluniacensian, cluniacensian, dominican, franciscan, jesuit.

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A monk of the reformed branch of the Benedictine order, founded in 910 at Cluny (or Clugny) in France. historical
"[…] maximism of the Cluniacs on the one hand and the minimism of puritanic Cistercianism on the other."

Adjective

1
Relating to a reformed Benedictine monastic order founded at Cluny in eastern France.
"In the same year as the Furness objection, sadder tidings befell St Pancras Priory at Lewes, in East Sussex. Despite it having the distinction of being the earliest Cluniac monastery in Great Britain, petitions to prevent the Brighton Lewes & Hastings Railway from imposing on its site with its Lewes line failed. The line was approved and, as if as an act of deliberate desecration and assertion of the railways' power, passed over the site of the high altar."

"[…] maximism of the Cluniacs on the one hand and the minimism of puritanic Cistercianism on the other."

From Cluny + -ac.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.