Chapel

How to spell chapel

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce chapel

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does chapel mean?

1. nounA small building or room used for Christian worship, often attached to a larger institution.

Chapel in a sentence

• The hospital chapel stays open all night for visitors who need quiet.

• They were married in a tiny stone chapel in the village.

Where does chapel come from?

Language of origin: French

The word chapel traces back to the Late Latin cappella, which literally meant 'little cloak', a diminutive of cappa 'cloak'. The story behind that odd image is well known: the cloak of Saint Martin of Tours was preserved as a sacred relic by the Frankish kings, and the small sanctuary built to house it was called the cappella. By extension, any room or building set aside for worship came to share the name, and the priest who guarded the relic became known as the cappellanus, the source of the modern word 'chaplain'. English borrowed the term through Old French chapele in the 1200s, gradually settling on the single spelling chapel. Because the original double consonant of cappella was simplified, the modern word keeps just one p and one l, which is the small spelling point worth remembering.

How the word is built

• chap- (from Late Latin cappella: little cloak, hence a sanctuary)
• -el (diminutive ending)