Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Priory"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Priory \Pri"o*ry\, n.; pl. {Priories}. [Cf. LL. prioria. See
{Prior}, n.]
A religious house presided over by a prior or prioress; --
sometimes an offshoot of, an subordinate to, an abbey, and
called also {cell}, and {obedience}. See {Cell}, 2.
Note: Of such houses there were two sorts: one where the
prior was chosen by the inmates, and governed as
independently as an abbot in an abbey; the other where
the priory was subordinate to an abbey, and the prior
was placed or displaced at the will of the abbot.
{Alien priory}, a small religious house dependent on a large
monastery in some other country.
Syn: See {Cloister}.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
priory
n : religious residence in a monastery governed by a prior or a
convent governed by a prioress
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