Baptism
name, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A Christian sacrament, by which one is received into a church and sometimes given a name, generally involving the candidate to be anointed with or submerged in water. countable, uncountable
"The child’s baptism was held at the old church."
- 2 a Christian sacrament signifying spiritual cleansing and rebirth wordnet
- 3 A similar ceremony of initiation, purification or naming. countable, uncountable
- 4 The moment at which an object is first assigned a proper name. countable, uncountable
- 1 The Baptist faith; the Baptist denominations of Christianity. nonstandard, rare
"Whereas Landon Carter was disgusted with his overseer's proselytizing in 1776, his nephew Robert, who originally shared his skepticism, saw the light in 1778, converted to Baptism himself, and spent much of the next decade encouraging his slaves to follow suit — much to the annoyance of several of his overseers."
Example
More examples"Baptists reject infant baptism."
Etymology
From Middle English bapteme, baptesme, from Old French batesme or bapteme, from Ecclesiastical Latin, Late Latin baptisma, from Ancient Greek βάπτισμα (báptisma, “dipping, baptism”), from βαπτίζω (baptízō, “I dip in liquid”). Displaced native Old English fulwiht.
Related phrases
More for "baptism"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.