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Overview
cloister
Quick Reference
A covered walk in a convent, monastery, college, or cathedral, often with a wall on one side and a colonnade open to a quadrangle on the other. The word is recorded from Middle English (in the sense ‘place of religious seclusion’, and comes via Old French from Latin claustrum, clostrum ‘lock, enclosed place’, from claudere ‘to close’.
Subjects: Art & Architecture
