Definition of "postulant" [pos•tu•lant]

• A person submitting a request or application; a petitioner. (noun)
• A candidate for admission into a religious order. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The fact that there is no such law is itself the reason why neither a man nor a woman is permitted nowadays to take permanent vows until after a considerable period of probation, first as a 'postulant' and then as a novice."
• "The attractionThat desire is what drew first-year postulant Sister Zandra Man into the order."
• "She is aided by mistress of novices and wrestling coach Sister Acacius (Julie Halston), currently besieged by a wide-eyed postulant with healing powers (Amy Rutberg), appropriately named Agnes, and a sinister new arrival Sister Walburga (Alison Fraser), a cartoon-evil German from the "mother house in Berlin.""