Nave

How to spell nave

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce nave

What does nave mean?

1. nounThe long central part of a church where the congregation sits, running from the entrance towards the altar.

Nave in a sentence

• The bride walked the length of the nave towards the altar.

• Sunlight streamed through the high windows above the nave of the cathedral.

Where does nave come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin navis, meaning 'ship', the same root that gives us 'navy', 'navigate' and 'naval'. Medieval architects borrowed this image because the long, high central hall of a church, with its vaulted roof arching overhead, reminded them of the upturned hull of a great ship. The Latin navis passed into the specialised church sense through Medieval Latin and entered English in the late 1600s. There is a separate, older 'nave' meaning the central hub of a wheel, but that one descends from a quite different Old English word, nafu, related to 'navel' as the central point of the body. Because it sounds exactly like 'knave', the dishonest fellow or the jack in a pack of cards, the silent k of that partner is the spelling trap worth keeping in mind here.

How the word is built

• nave (from Latin navis: ship)