Ecclesiastical

How to spell ecclesiastical

14 letters · 6 syllables

92 of the 220 people asked to spell ecclesiastical in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

The most common mistake is eclesiastical. The letters people get wrong are highlighted.

eclesiastical ecclesiastical

What people typed instead

• eclesiastical24 people
• eclisiastical13 people
• ecclisiastical7 people
• ecclessiastical5 people
• ecleasiastical3 people

How to pronounce ecclesiastical

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ecclesiastical mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the Christian Church, its clergy, or its government and affairs.

Ecclesiastical in a sentence

• The dispute was eventually settled by an ecclesiastical court rather than a civil one.

• The museum holds a collection of medieval ecclesiastical robes and silver.

Where does ecclesiastical come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek ekklesia, which originally meant simply 'an assembly of citizens called together', built from ek meaning 'out' and kalein meaning 'to call', so literally 'those called out'. Early Christian writers adopted ekklesia as the word for a gathering of believers, and from there it came to mean the Church itself. Late Latin reshaped the adjective into ecclesiasticus, 'belonging to the Church', and English took it up through Old French and Latin in the fifteenth century. The same Greek root survives in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes, traditionally understood as 'the preacher' or 'one who addresses an assembly'. The tricky spelling, with its silent rhythm of double letters and the unexpected -cc- followed by -sci-, comes straight from the Greek and Latin forms and is the main reason adults stumble over it.

How the word is built

• ecclesi- (from Greek ekklesia: assembly, church)
• -astic (relating to)
• -al (adjective suffix)

People who misspell ecclesiastical also struggle with

Of the Spelling Garden players who got ecclesiastical wrong the first time, this is how many also got each of these wrong.

• ordnance 94% of them got it wrong
• butte 83% of them got it wrong
• gubernatorial 80% of them got it wrong
• idiosyncrasy 79% of them got it wrong
• supersede 79% of them got it wrong
• lien 67% of them got it wrong