Added 8 October 2026
church
/t͡ʃɜːt͡ʃ/ noun
In Latin: ecclesia Wiktionary
noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about church at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
-
A Christian house of worship; a building where Christian religious services take place. .mw-parser-output .defdate{font-size:smaller}
There is a lovely little church in the valley.
-
Christians collectively seen as a single spiritual community; Christianity; Christendom.
These worshippers make up the Church of Christ.
- A local group of people who follow the same Christian religious beliefs, local or general.
verb
- To conduct a religious service for (a woman after childbirth, or a newly married couple).
- To educate someone religiously, as in a church.
interjection
Origin
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. Additional etymological information For vowel evolution, see bury. Ancient Greek κυριακόν (kuriakón) was used of houses of Christian worship since circa 300 CE, especially in the East, though it was less common in this sense than ἐκκλησία (ekklēsía, “congregation”) or βασιλική (basilikḗ, “royal thing”).
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)