Christendom
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The Christian world; Christ's Church on Earth. countable, uncountable
"The Arian doctrine which then divided Christendom."
- 2 the collective body of Christians throughout the world and history (found predominantly in Europe and the Americas and Australia) wordnet
- 3 The state of being a (devout) Christian; Christian belief or faith. archaic, countable, uncountable
"By my Chriſtendome, So I were out of priſon, and kept Sheepe, I ſhould be as merry as the day is long."
- 4 The name received at baptism; any name or appellation. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"[…]but for an Author to renounce his Chriſtendome to write in his owne commendation, to refuſe the name which his Godfathers and Godmothers gaue him in his baptiſme , and call himſelfe a wellwiller to both the writers[…]"
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"In the cities the quarters for the wealthier classes are not so sharply defined as with us, though the love for pleasant outlooks and beautiful scenery tends to enhance the value of certain districts, and consequently to bring together the wealthier classes. In nearly all the cities, however, you will find the houses of the wealthy in the immediate vicinity of the habitations of the poorest. In Tokio one may find streets, or narrow alleys, lined with a continuous row of the cheapest shelters; and here dwell the poorest people. Though squalid and dirty as such places appear to the Japanese, they are immaculate in comparison with the unutterable filth and misery of similar quarters in nearly all the great cities of Christendom. Certainly a rich man in Japan would not, as a general thing, buy up the land about his house to keep the poorer classes at a distance, for the reason that their presence would not be objectionable, since poverty in Japan is not associated with the impossible manners of a similar class at home."
Etymology
From Middle English cristendom, cristendome, from Old English cristendōm, equivalent to Christen + -dom.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.