Plural of convent; buildings where communities of nuns live and worship together under religious vows.
From Middle English convent, from Old French covent, from Latin conventus ('assembly' or 'meeting place'). The word retained its meaning of a gathering place for religious women throughout medieval and modern times.
Convents weren't just religious spaces—they were often the only places where women could get an education, run an organization, and live independently from men during the Middle Ages. Some of history's most important female scholars were confined nuns.
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