recluse

From Old French reclus, past participle of reclure, from Latin reclūdere (“to disclose, to open”), from re- + claudō (“close”).

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈkluːs/, /ˈɹɛkluːs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -uːs

recluse (comparative more recluse, superlative most recluse) (archaic)

1. Sequestered; secluded, isolated.

   a recluse monk or hermit

   • 1667, J[ohn] Evelyn, Publick Employment and an Active Life, with Its Appanages, such as Fame, Command, Riches, Conversation, &c. Preferred to Solitude: […], London: […] J. M. for H[enry] Herringman […], →OCLC, page 6:

     Hermits themſelves are not recluſe enough to ſeclude that ſubtile ſpirit, Vanity: […]

   • 1708, [John Philips], “(please specify the page)”, in Cyder. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     In meditation deep, recluse / From human converse.

2. Hidden, secret.

• reclusive

recluse (plural recluses)

1. A person who lives in self-imposed isolation or seclusion from the world, especially for religious purposes; a hermit.

   Synonyms: anchorite, eremite, hermit

   • 1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xv:

     The recluse in the fable kept a cat to keep off the rats, and then a cow to feed the cat with milk, and a man to keep the cow and so on. My ambitions also grew like the family of the recluse.

   • 2025 July 16, Daniel Dale, “Fact check: Trump tells fictional story about his uncle and the Unabomber”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     First, the president’s uncle died in 1985. Kaczynski was publicly revealed as the Unabomber more than a decade later, in 1996, when he was captured; before that, he had lived as a recluse in the Montana wilderness.

2. (obsolete) The place where a recluse dwells; a place of isolation or seclusion.
   • 1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC:

     that day of appearance taken out of the recluse and committed to safe custody

3. (US) A brown recluse spider.

• See also Thesaurus:recluse

recluse (third-person singular simple present recluses, present participle reclusing, simple past and past participle reclused)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To shut; to seclude.

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.klyz/

• Audio:

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• Homophone: recluses

recluse

1. feminine singular of reclus

• IPA^(key): /reˈklu.ze/
• Rhymes: -uze
• Hyphenation: re‧clù‧se

recluse

1. feminine plural of recluso

recluse f pl

1. feminine plural of recluso

recluse f

1. plural of reclusa

recluse

1. third-person singular past historic of recludere

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [rɛˈkɫuː.sɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [reˈkluː.s̬e]

reclūse

1. vocative masculine singular of reclūsus