A nunnery is a building or group of buildings where nuns live together in a religious community. Nuns are women who have devoted their lives to serving God, and a nunnery provides them a place to pray, work, and follow their spiritual calling away from the distractions of everyday life. The more common word for the same place is convent, though nunnery was used more often in older times.

In a nunnery, nuns follow strict schedules of prayer and work. They might teach in schools, care for the sick, copy manuscripts (before printing presses existed), or grow food in gardens. Medieval nunneries were some of the few places where women could receive education and hold leadership positions. Some famous nunneries, like the one led by Hildegard of Bingen in the 1100s, became centers of learning, music, and medicine.

The word appears frequently in older literature and historical accounts. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the troubled prince tells Ophelia to “get thee to a nunnery,” meaning she should become a nun rather than marry. The phrase sounds strange to modern ears, but it shows how nunneries were seen as refuges from the complications of the world.

Today, nunneries still exist around the world, though most people call them convents. The related word for where monks live is a monastery.