Bishop

How to spell bishop

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bishop

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bishop mean?

1. nounA senior Christian clergyman who oversees a diocese or group of churches.
2. nounA chess piece that moves diagonally across squares of one colour.

Bishop in a sentence

• The bishop confirmed dozens of teenagers at the cathedral.

• She slid her bishop across the board to pin the knight.

• Each diocese is led by a bishop who oversees its parishes.

• Trading a rook for a bishop early in the game was a mistake.

Where does bishop come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the Greek episkopos, which literally meant 'overseer' or 'one who watches over', built from epi- meaning 'over' and skopos meaning 'a watcher' (the same skopos that lives on in 'telescope' and 'microscope'). In the early Christian church this title was applied to the senior cleric who supervised a community of believers. Latin took it in as episcopus, and from there it spread across Europe; the same root survives openly in the English adjective 'episcopal'. When the word reached Old English it was heavily reshaped by the spoken tongue, dropping the opening 'e' and softening into bisceop, which is why the modern spelling looks nothing like its Greek ancestor. That long erosion explains the trap: there is no double letter and no obvious link to 'episcopal', so writers must simply remember the single 's', single 'h' and the unstressed second syllable.

How the word is built

• From Greek episkopos: epi- (over)
• skopos (watcher/looker), worn down in Old English to bisc(e)op