Basilica

How to spell basilica

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce basilica

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does basilica mean?

1. nounA large and important church, or in ancient Rome a long rectangular public hall with a central nave and side aisles.

Basilica in a sentence

• The tour ended inside a vast marble basilica near the city centre.

• Pilgrims queued for hours to enter the famous basilica in Rome.

Where does basilica come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek basilike stoa, meaning 'royal portico' or 'king's hall', built on basileus, the Greek word for 'king'. In ancient Athens such a hall was associated with the archon basileus, a magistrate who carried the old royal title, and the term came to describe a large public building used for law courts and commerce. The Romans borrowed it as the Latin basilica to name their grand rectangular halls with a central nave and side aisles, and when early Christians began adapting these spacious buildings for worship the word shifted to mean a large or important church. English took the word directly from Latin during the 1500s, keeping the Latin spelling intact. The single 's' followed by the 'l' is the spelling trap, since the royal root basileus shares its kingly sense with the herb 'basil', once thought worthy of a king.

How the word is built

• basilic- (from Greek basilikos: royal, kingly, from basileus: king)
• -a (noun ending)