Friar

//ˈfɹaɪə// name, noun

name, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A member of a mendicant Christian order such as the Augustinians, Carmelites (white friars), Franciscans (grey friars) or the Dominicans (black friars).
  2. 2
    a male member of a religious order that originally relied solely on alms wordnet
  3. 3
    A white or pale patch on a printed page caused by poor inking. dated
  4. 4
    An American fish, the silverside.
  5. 5
    An American fish, the silverside.; Such fish prepared as food.
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms
brothermonkabbacomesabbotasceticbeadsman

Antonyms

All antonyms
nun

Example

More examples

"The friar is more interested in brewing beer than he is the church."

Etymology

PIE word *bʰréh₂tēr From Middle English frere, from Old French frere, from Latin frāter (“brother”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr (“brother”). Doublet of bhai, brother, bru, frater, pal, and vai.

Related phrases

Friar MinorFriar Preacherblack friarcurtal friarfriar birdfriar's balsamfriar's capfriar's cowlfriar's omelettegray friargrey friarpreaching friar

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