church

Meanings

Noun

• A Christian house of worship; a building where Christian religious services take place.
• Christians collectively seen as a single spiritual community; Christianity.
• A local group of people who follow the same Christian religious beliefs, local or general.
• A particular denomination of Christianity.
• Christian worship held at a church; service.
• Organized religion in general or a specific religion considered as a political institution.
• Any religious group.
• Assembly.

Verb

• To conduct a religious service for (a woman after childbirth, or a newly married couple).
• To educate someone religiously, as in in a church.

Interjection

• Expressing strong agreement.

Related

Similar words

• autem
• chapel , kirk
• congregation

Narrower meaning words

• Anglican Church
• Byzantine Church
• Catholic Church
• Christian Church
• Church of England
• Church of Rome
• Church of Scotland
• Church of the East
• Church Slavonic
• Congregational church
• Eastern Church
• Eastern Orthodox Church
• Greek Church
• Greek Catholic Church
• Greek Orthodox Church
• High Church
• Latin Church
• LDS church
• Low Church
• Lutheran Church
• Maronite Church
• New Church
• Orthodox Church
• Orthodox Catholic Church
• Oriental Church
• Oriental Orthodox Church
• Roman Catholic Church
• Western Church
• en
• autocephalous church
• autonomous church
• broad church
• established church
• free church
• local church
• parish church
• particular church
• simple church
• state church
• union church
• united church

Broader meaning words

• religion
• building

Origin

• From Middle English chirche, from Old English ċiriċe ("church"), from Proto-West Germanic *kirikā, an early borrowing of Ancient Greek κυριακόν, neuter form of κυριακός, from κύριος, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewH- ("to swell, spread out, be strong, prevail"). For vowel evolution, see bury. κυριακόν was used of houses of Christian worship since circa 300 , especially in the East, though it was less common in this sense than ἐκκλησία or βασιλική. An example of the direct Greek-to-Germanic progress of many Christian words, possibly via the Goths; it was probably used by West Germanic people in their pre-Christian period. Cognate with Scots kirk ("church"), West Frisian tsjerke ("church"), Saterland Frisian Säärke ("church"), Dutch kerk ("church"), German Kirche ("church"), Danish kirke ("church"), Swedish kyrka ("church"), Norwegian Bokmål kirke, Norwegian Nynorsk kyrkje ("church"), and Icelandic kirkja ("church"). Also picked up by Slavic, via Old High German chirihha (compare Old Church Slavonic црькꙑ, Bulgarian църква, Russian це́рковь). Romance and Celtic languages use descendants of Latin ecclēsia.