Prioress

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A nun in charge of a priory (usually lower in rank than an abbess); mother superior.
  2. 2
    the superior of a group of nuns wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
abbessabbessmother superiornovicenunpostulant

Etymology

From Middle English prieresse, priorasse, priores, prioresse, priorisse, priouresse, priures, priuresse, prowres, pryoras, pryorys, pryowresse, from Medieval Latin priōrissa and Old French prioresse, prieuresse; equivalent to prior + -ess.

Related phrases

mother superior

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