church

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

English

Alternative forms

• churche, chirche (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English chirche, from Old English ċiriċe (“church”), from Proto-West Germanic *kirikā, an early borrowing of Ancient Greek κυριακόν (kuriakón), neuter form of κυριακός (kuriakós, “belonging to the lord”), from κύριος (kúrios, “ruler, lord”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewh₁- (“to swell, spread out, be strong, prevail”). Doublet of kirk.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɜːt͡ʃ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɝt͡ʃ/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)tʃ
• (Early Modern) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃʊrt͡ʃ/, (rarer) /t͡ʃɪrt͡ʃ/
• Hyphenation: church

Noun

church (countable and uncountable, plural churches)

2. (countable, Christianity) A Christian house of worship; a building where Christian religious services take place. [from 9th c.]
3. Christians collectively seen as a single spiritual community; Christianity; Christendom. [from 9th c.]
   • Acts 20:28, New International Version:

     Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.

4. (countable) A local group of people who follow the same Christian religious beliefs, local or general. [from 9th c.]
5. (countable) A particular denomination of Christianity. [from 9th c.]

6. (uncountable, countable, as bare noun) Christian worship held at a church; service. [from 10th c.]
7. (uncountable) Organized religion in general or a specific religion considered as a political institution.
8. (informal) Any religious group or place of worship; a temple. [from 16th c.]
9. (obsolete) Assembly.

Usage notes

• Several senses of church are routinely used in prepositional phrases as a bare noun, without a determiner or article. Go to church signifies "attend a church service" while go to a/the church signifies "physically go to a church building, probably without attending a service." She is at church means "she is currently attending a service," while She is at the church means "She is at the church building, and probably not currently in a service." This is like home and unlike house, and like hospital in British but not American English.
• (organized religion): Often capitalized as "(the) Church" without referring to a specific formal institution with that title.

Synonyms

• autem (obsolete, Britain, thieves’ cant)
• (building): chapel (small church), kirk (Scotland)
• (group of worshipers): congregation

Hypernyms

• (religious group): religion
• (house of worship): building

Hyponyms

See also Thesaurus:church

Coordinate terms

• circle, fire temple, gurdwara, heiau, hof, House of Worship, jinja, mandir, monastery, mosque, pagoda, synagogue, temple

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• Pijin: sios
• Tok Pisin: sios
• → Hausa: cōcì
• → Hindi: चर्च (carc)
• → Limburgish: sjoeëtsj, sjuutsj

Translations

Verb

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

1. (transitive, Christianity, now historical) To conduct a religious service for (a woman after childbirth, or a newly married couple). [from 15th c.]
2. (transitive) To educate someone religiously, as in in a church.

Translations

Interjection

church

2. (slang) Used to express strong agreement.

   Synonym: preach

See also

• Appendix:Ecclesiastical terms

References

Further reading

• church on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Middle English

Noun

church

1. Alternative form of chirche