Anchoress

noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A female anchorite. A woman who chooses to withdraw from the world to live a solitary life of prayer and contemplation.

    "… and advises the anchoresses to take on the basic religious vows …"

  2. 2
    An anchorwoman. informal

    "Williams was co-hosting in place of Katie Couric, a move some have speculated was meant to deprive the possible next anchoress of the CBS Evening News the prime time exposure."

Synonyms

All synonyms
anchoriteanchoritessanchorwomanascetichermithomebody

Example

More examples

"… and advises the anchoresses to take on the basic religious vows …"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English ankres, ankerisse, anchoryse; equivalent to anchor + -ess.

Etymology 2

From anchor + -ess.

More for "anchoress"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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