monastery
/ˈmɒnəstɹi/
"monastery" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“monastery” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,105 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #12,105
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A residence for monks or others who have taken religious vows.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | monastery |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɒnəstɹi/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #12,105 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “monastery” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for monastery is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɒnəstɹi/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,105 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A residence for monks or others who have taken religious vows.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for monastery, with forms such as "mmonastery", "mnoastery", and "moanstery". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "monster", "mastery", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English monasterie, from Old French monastere, from Medieval Latin monastērium (“monastery”), from Ancient Greek μοναστήριον (monastḗrion, “hermitage, monastery”), from μοναστήριος (monastḗrios, “alone, made alone”) + -ιον (-ion, “-ium”, suffix … The correct English form is monastery, spelled M-O-N-A-S-T-E-R-Y.
Definition
- 1A residence for monks or others who have taken religious vows.
Etymology
From Middle English monasterie, from Old French monastere, from Medieval Latin monastērium (“monastery”), from Ancient Greek μοναστήριον (monastḗrion, “hermitage, monastery”), from μοναστήριος (monastḗrios, “alone, made alone”) + -ιον (-ion, “-ium”, suffix forming place names), from μονάζω (monázō, “to be alone”), from μόνος (mónos, “alone”) + -άζω (-ázō, verb-forming suffix). Doublet of minster.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: mmonastery,mnoastery,moanstery,monasetry,monasstery,monasterry,monasteryy,monasteyr,monastrey,monasttery,monatsery,monnastery,monsatery,omnastery
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of monastery - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “monastery”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-O-N-A-S-T-E-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmɒnəstɹi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “monster” - see the side-by-side comparison. monastery vs monster
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.