n A female superior or
governess of a
nunnery, or
convent of nuns, having the same authority over the nuns which the
abbots have over the monks.
(defdate|First attested around 1150 to 1350)[(reference-book | last =| first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | editor =Brown, Lesley | others = | title = The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary | origdate = | origyear = 1933| origmonth = | url = | format = | accessdate = | accessyear = | accessmonth = | edition = 5th | date = | year =2003| month = | publisher =Oxford University Press | location =Oxford, UK | language = | id = | doi = | isbn =978-0-19-860575-7 | lccn = | ol = | pages =3| chapter = | chapterurl = | quote =)]