convent vs. monastery

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,

Is it true that ‘convent’ means a building for female catholic religious community and ‘monastery’ means for male one? Do we need to use the definite article with names of monasteries, convents and churches?

Thanks in advance!

2

Hello Irene, in general terms that’s almost true, but there are Anglican convents and monasteries too.

Convent: A Christian community under monastic vows, especially one of nuns.
Monastery: A community of people, especially monks or nuns, living under religious vows.

3

convent is called nunerry as well. (my dictionary), (old-fashioned, according to another dictionary of the same quality)

4

Note the spelling, E2: nunnery.