church

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to: navigation, search
See also Church

Contents

[edit] English

[edit] Alternative forms

[edit] Etymology

From Middle English chirche, from Old English ċiriċe (“church”), from Proto-Germanic *kirikōn, *kirika (“church”), from Ancient Greek κυριακόν (kyriakon), neuter form of κυριακός (“belonging to the lord”), from κύριος (kurios, “ruler, lord”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱēw-, *ḱwā- (“to swell, spread out, be strong, prevail”). For vowel evolution, see bury. Greek κυριακόν (kuriakon) was used of houses of Christian worship since circa 300 AD, especially in the East, though it was less common in this sense than ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia, “congregation”) or βασιλική (basilikē, “royal thing”). An example of the direct Greek-to-Germanic progress of many Christian words, via the Goths; it was probably used by West Germanic people in their pre-Christian period. Cognate with Scots kirk (“church”), West Frisian tsjerke (“church”), Eastern Frisian tserce (“church”), Dutch kerk (“church”), German Kirche (“church”), Danish kirke (“church”), Swedish kyrka (“church”), Norwegian kirke, kyrkje (“church”), and Icelandic kirkja (“church”). Also picked up by Slavic, via Old High German chirihha (compare Old Church Slavonic црькъі (crĭky), Russian церковь (cérkov’)). Romance and Celtic languages use variants of Latin ecclesia.

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Noun

A church, with many architectural features traditional to such a structure.

church (plural churches)

  1. A Christian house of worship; a building where religious services take place.
    There is a lovely little church in the valley.
    This building used to be a church before being converted into a library.
  2. A Christian religious organization, local or general.
    The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534.
    The church across the street has a service at 10 am.
  3. A group of people who follow the same Christian religious beliefs, local or general.
    These worshippers comprise the Church of Christ.
    • Acts 20:28, New International Version:
      Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.
  4. A time of public worship; a worship service.
    I'll be there after church.

[edit] Synonyms

[edit] Derived terms

Look at pages starting with church.

Derived terms

[edit] See also

selected ecclesiastical terms

Template:rel-mid2

[edit] Translations

house of worship
a religious organization
a group of people who follow the same Christian religious beliefs
worship service
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

[edit] Verb

church (third-person singular simple present churches, present participle churching, simple past and past participle churched)

  1. (transitive, now rare) To conduct a religious service for (a woman) after childbirth.
    • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XI:
      Than, aftir the lady was delyverde and churched, there cam a knyght unto her [...].
  2. (transitive) To educate someone religiously, as in in a church.

[edit] Derived terms

[edit] See also

selected ecclesiastical terms

[edit] Statistics

Retrieved from "http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=church&oldid=16156222"
Personal tools
Namespaces
Variants
Views
Actions
Navigation
Toolbox
In other languages