mendicant
4 synonyms and 0 antonyms for mendicant, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — A member of a religious order that owns no property and lives on charity, such as a Franciscan or Dominican friar.
Synonyms
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Synonyms by Meaning
1. noun religion
A member of a religious order that owns no property and lives on charity, such as a Franciscan or Dominican friar.
“The mendicants arrived barefoot and asked only for bread.”
2. noun formal
A person who lives by begging.
“Mendicants gathered at the cathedral steps each evening.”
How to use mendicant
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
Formal or historical; calling a modern homeless person a mendicant sounds archaic and distancing.
Etymology
From Latin mendicare 'to beg', from mendicus 'beggar'.
Full origin of mendicant →Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a monk and a mendicant friar?
A monk lives inside a monastery under a vow of stability and the community supports itself, often from its own land. A mendicant friar is deliberately propertyless, moves about preaching, and depends on alms from the public.
Which orders are mendicant orders?
The main ones are the Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites and Augustinians. They emerged in medieval Europe as preachers who owned nothing personally or communally.