【Recluse】 , 【hermit】 ,  【eremite】 ,  【anchorite】 ,  【cenobite】  all designate a person who lives apart from the world usually in order to devote himself to prayer, contemplation, and penance.

【Recluse】  and  【hermit】  are also applied to persons who avoid intercourse with men for other than religious motives, but even in such extended use they retain their original distinguishing implications, for  【recluse】  stresses retirement from the world and the life of the world into seclusion but not necessarily into physical isolation and  【hermit】 , a solitary life lived apart from men and usually in a place or under conditions where there is little likelihood of intrusion.

【Recluse】  is the broader term; it may be applied to a 【hermit】 or to a religious who lives in a cloistered community.

【Hermit】  is often applied to a member of one of the very few religious orders (as the Carthusians) whose members dwell alone and meet other members of the community only in church and in the refectory on Sundays.

【Eremite】 , archaic as a variant of  【hermit】 , is sometimes chosen to unequivocally designate a solitary who is under a religious vow.  【Anchorite】  and  【cenobite】  are contrasted terms for the two leading types of recluses in the Eastern and in the Western Church.

【Anchorite】  designates the type known as  【hermit】  or  【eremite】 ;  【cenobite】 , the type that dwells in a community, especially a strictly cloistered community of monks or nuns.