Church

How to spell church

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce church

What does church mean?

1. nounA building used for public Christian worship.
2. nounThe wider organisation or community of Christians, or its hierarchy.

Church in a sentence

• The old stone church stood at the centre of the village.

• The church has long debated how to spend its charitable funds.

• They booked the church for their wedding next summer.

• Separation of church and state is written into the constitution.

Where does church come from?

Language of origin: Greek

Church comes from the Old English word cirice (also spelled circe), the everyday Anglo-Saxon term for a Christian place of worship. Behind that lies a borrowing from the Greek phrase kyriakon doma, meaning 'the Lord's house', built on kyrios, which literally meant 'lord' or 'master'. The same Greek kyrios survives in the liturgical cry 'kyrie eleison' ('Lord, have mercy'), so the building was named, quite simply, after the one it was dedicated to. The word travelled across the early Germanic languages, which is why German has 'Kirche' and Scots has 'kirk', all cousins of the English form. The double 'ch' spelling we use today reflects the soft sounds that the Old English letter c developed before front vowels, smoothing into the familiar 'ch' at both ends of the modern word.

How the word is built

• chur- (from Old English cirice, ultimately Greek kyriakon 'the Lord's house')
• -ch (consonant ending reflecting the Old English palatal c)