anchoress
noun
anchoress is spelled A-N-C-H-O-R-E-S-S: 9 letters. It appears about once in every 71 million words in written English, the 265,644th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, anchoress means “A female anchorite. A woman who chooses to withdraw from the world to live a solitary life of prayer and contemplation” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of anchoress is anchoresses.
How many letters and syllables are in anchoress?
| Letters | 9: A-N-C-H-O-R-E-S-S |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 71 million words; the 265,644th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is anchoress?
Anchoress appears about once in every 71 million words in written English, the 265,644th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Forms of anchoress
- anchoresses plural
- anchress
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does anchoress mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A female anchorite. A woman who chooses to withdraw from the world to live a solitary life of prayer and contemplation.
- 2
informalAn anchorwoman.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Anchoress in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense female anchorite:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | anachorétesse |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does anchoress come from?
From Middle English ankres, ankerisse, anchoryse; equivalent to anchor + -ess.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).