Gospel

How to spell gospel

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce gospel

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gospel mean?

1. nounThe teaching or record of the life of Jesus, especially one of the first four books of the New Testament.
2. nounSomething accepted as completely and unquestionably true.
3. nounA style of fervent religious music rooted in African American Christian worship.

Gospel in a sentence

• The priest read a passage from the gospel during the service.

• He took every word of the report as gospel without checking the figures.

• The choir performed a rousing gospel number to close the concert.

• She studied the four accounts of the gospel for her theology degree.

• Do not assume that a single online review is gospel.

• She grew up singing gospel in her local church.

Where does gospel come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Gospel is one of the great native English words, formed in Old English as godspell, a careful translation of the Latin evangelium and the Greek euangelion, both of which meant 'good news'. The first element, god, here meant 'good' rather than the deity, while spell meant 'a story, a message, or tidings', a sense that survives faintly in the idea of 'spelling out' a tale and in words like 'spellbinding'. So godspell literally meant 'good tidings', exactly mirroring the religious term it was created to render. Over time the vowel in the first syllable shortened and the word settled into the spelling 'gospel', which is why the second 'o' you might expect from 'good' simply is not there. The phrase 'gospel truth' later came to mean something absolutely reliable, since the gospel was regarded as the most trustworthy account of all.

How the word is built

• god- (from Old English god: good)
• spell (from Old English spell: story, message, tidings)