Cloister vs. Peristyle — What's the Difference?

A cloister (from Latin claustrum, "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a warm southern flank, usually indicates that it is (or once was) part of a monastic foundation, "forming a continuous and solid architectural barrier...

In Hellenistic Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle (; from Greek περίστυλον) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön (τετράστῳον or τετράστοον, 'four arcades') is a rarely used archaic term for this feature.

A quadrangle enclosed by an open colonnade and a covered walk.

A series of columns surrounding a building or enclosing a court.

The covered walk enclosing such a quadrangle.

A court enclosed by columns.

A place, especially a monastery or convent, devoted to religious seclusion.

A colonnade surrounding a courtyard, temple, etc., or the yard enclosed by such columns.

Life in a monastery or convent.

A porch surrounded by columns.

A secluded, quiet place.

(voodoo) A sacred roofed courtyard with a central pillar (the potomitan), used as a space for voodoo ceremonies, either alone or as an adjunct to an enclosed temple or altar-room.

To shut away from the world in or as if in a cloister; seclude.

A range of columns with their entablature, etc.; specifically, a complete system of columns, whether on all sides of a court, or surrounding a building, such as the cella of a temple. Used in the former sense, it gives name to the larger and inner court of a Roman dwelling, the peristyle. See Colonnade.

To furnish (a building) with a cloister.

A colonnade surrounding a building or enclosing a court

A covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle; especially:

Such an arcade in a monastery;

Such an arcade fitted with representations of the stages of Christ's Passion.

A place, especially a monastery or convent, devoted to religious seclusion.

(figuratively) The monastic life.

(intransitive) To become a Roman Catholic religious.

(transitive) To confine in a cloister, voluntarily or not.

(intransitive) To deliberately withdraw from worldly things.

(transitive) To provide with a cloister or cloisters.

(transitive) To protect or isolate.

An inclosed place.

A covered passage or ambulatory on one side of a court;

A monastic establishment; a place for retirement from the world for religious duties.

To confine in, or as in, a cloister; to seclude from the world; to immure.

Residence that is a place of religious seclusion (such as a monastery)

A courtyard with covered walks (as in religious institutions)

Surround with a cloister, as of a garden

Seclude from the world in or as if in a cloister;