clergy

English

Etymology

Middle English clergie (attested in the 13th century), from Old French clergié (“learned men”), from Late Latin clēricātus, from Latin clēricus (“one ordained for religious services”), from Ancient Greek κληρικός (klērikós, “of the clergy”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈklɜːdʒi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈklɝd͡ʒi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dʒi

Noun

clergy (plural clergies)

1. Body of persons, such as priests, who are trained and ordained for religious service.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.

   Today we brought together clergy from the Wiccan, Christian, New Age and Islamic traditions for an interfaith dialogue.

Derived terms

• benefit of clergy
• black clergy
• clergyman

 

Related terms

• cleric
• clerical
• clerk

Translations

people trained to officiate at religious ceremonies and services

• Belarusian: духаве́нства n (duxavjénstva)
• Bulgarian: духове́нство n (duhovénstvo), клир m (klir)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 神職人員／神职人员 (zh) (shénzhí rényuán), 圣职者 (shèngzhízhě), 聖職者／圣职者 (shèngzhízhě)

• Czech: duchovenstvo (cs) n
• Esperanto: ekleziularo, pastraro
• Finnish: papisto (fi)
• French: clergé (fr) m

  Old French: clergie

• Galician: clero (gl) m
• Georgian: სამღვდელოება (samɣvdeloeba)
• German: Geistlichkeit (de) f, Klerus (de) m
• Greek: κλήρος (el) m (klíros), ιερατείο (el) n (ierateío)
• Hungarian: papság (hu)
• Italian: clero (it) m
• Japanese: 聖職者 (ja) (せいしょくしゃ, seishokusha)
• Kazakh: діни адам (dıni adam), дін басы (dın basy)
• Korean: 성직자(聖職者) (seongjikja)
• Macedonian: свештенство n (sveštenstvo)
• Maltese: kleru
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: geistlighet (no) m or f, presteskap n

  Nynorsk: presteskap n

• Old French: clergie f
• Polish: duchowieństwo (pl) n, kler (pl) m
• Portuguese: clero (pt) m
• Romanian: cler (ro) n
• Russian: духове́нство (ru) n (duxovénstvo)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: клер m, свештенство n, свећенство n

  Roman: kler (sh) m, sveštenstvo (sh) n, svećenstvo n

• Slovak: duchovenstvo n
• Slovene: duhovščina (sl) f, kler m
• Spanish: clero (es) m
• Swedish: prästerskap (sv)
• Tagalog: klero
• Ukrainian: духове́нство n (duxovénstvo), причт m (pryčt)
• Vietnamese: tư tế

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “clergy”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.