Benefice

//ˈbɛnɪfɪs// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Land granted to a priest in a church that has a source of income attached to it.

    "If after long expectation, much expense, travel, earnest suit of ourselves and friends, we obtain a small benefice at last, our misery begins afresh […]"

  2. 2
    an endowed church office giving income to its holder wordnet
  3. 3
    A favour or benefit. obsolete
  4. 4
    An estate in lands; a fief.
Verb
  1. 1
    To bestow a benefice upon

    "There are two volumes, "The Open Door for Man's approach to God" (London, 1650) and "A Consideration of Infant Baptism" (London, 1653), by John Horne, who was beneficed at All Hallows, King's Lynn."

  2. 2
    endow with a benefice wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
beneficiumcare of soulschargecuracycureecclesiastical benefice

Example

More examples

"If after long expectation, much expense, travel, earnest suit of ourselves and friends, we obtain a small benefice at last, our misery begins afresh […]"

Etymology

From Old French benefice, from Latin beneficium.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.