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

• IPA^(key): /ˈklɜːdʒi/
• IPA^(key): /ˈklɝdʒi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)dʒi

Noun

clergy (plural clergies)

1. Body of persons, such as ministers, sheiks, priests and rabbis, who are trained and ordained for religious service.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 5, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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

• clergyman

Related terms

• cleric
• clerical
• clerk

Translations

people trained to officiate at religious ceremonies and services

• Belarusian: духаве́нства n (duxavjénstva)
• Bulgarian: духове́нство n (duhovénstvo)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 神職人員／神职人员 (zh) (shénzhí rényuán), 神职人员 (zh) (shénzhí rényuán)

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

  Old French: clergie

• Galician: clero m
• 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 (せいしょくしゃ, seishokusha)
• Kazakh: діни адам (dıni adam), дін басы (dın basy)
• Korean: 성직자 (seongjikja) (聖職者)
• Macedonian: свештенство n (sveštenstvo)
• Maltese: kleru
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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
• Russian: духове́нство (ru) n (duxovénstvo)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: клер m, свештенство n, свећенство n

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