chapter

English Online Dictionary. What means chapter‎? What does chapter mean?

English

Alternative forms

• chapiter, chapitre, chapiture, chaptre, chapyter, chapytre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English chapiter, from Old French chapitre, from Latin capitulum (“a chapter of a book, in Medieval Latin also a synod or council”), diminutive of caput (“a head”); see capital, capitulum, and chapiter, which are doublets of chapter.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃæptə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃæptɚ/
• Rhymes: -æptə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: chap‧ter

Noun

chapter (plural chapters)

1. (authorship) One of the main sections into which the text of a book is divided.
   1. A section of a work, a collection of works, or fragments of works, often manuscripts or transcriptions, created by scholars or advocates, not the original authors, to aid in finding portions of the texts.
2. Certain ecclesiastical bodies (under canon law)
   1. An assembly of monks, prebendaries and/or other clergymen connected with a cathedral, conventual or collegiate church, or of a diocese, usually presided over by the dean.
   2. A community of canons or canonesses.
   3. A bishop's council.
3. A section of a social body.
   1. An administrative division of an organization, usually local to a specific area.
   2. An organized branch of some society or fraternity, such as the Freemasons.
4. A meeting of certain organized societies or orders.
5. A chapter house
6. A sequence (of events), especially when presumed related and likely to continue.
   • 1866, Wilkie Collins, Armadale, Book the Last, Chapter I,

     "You know that Mr. Armadale is alive," pursued the doctor, "and you know that he is coming back to England. Why do you continue to wear your widow's dress?" ¶ She answered him without an instant's hesitation, steadily going on with her work. ¶ "Because I am of a sanguine disposition, like you. I mean to trust to the chapter of accidents to the very last. Mr. Armadale may die yet, on his way home."
7. (obsolete) A location or compartment.
8. (Roman Catholicism) A prescribed reading at one of the canonical hours.

   Synonym: capitule

Synonyms

• ch., chpt. (abbreviations)

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• → Cebuano: tsapter

Translations

See also

• overarching
• rubric
• marginalia

Further reading

• “chapter”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “chapter”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Verb

chapter (third-person singular simple present chapters, present participle chaptering, simple past and past participle chaptered)

1. To divide into chapters.
2. To put into a chapter.
3. (military, with "out") To use administrative procedure to remove someone.
4. (transitive) To take to task.

References

• “chapter”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “chapter”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• carpeth, chaptre, patcher, pearcht, preacht, repatch