Chalice
noun ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A large drinking cup, often having a stem and base and used especially for formal occasions and religious ceremonies.
"[W]e but teach / Bloody Inſtructions, which, being taught, returne / To plague th' Inuentor. This euen-handed Iuſtice / Commends th' Ingredience of our poyſon'd Challice / To our owne lips."
- 2 a bowl-shaped drinking vessel; especially the Eucharistic cup wordnet
- 3 A kind of water-cooled pipe for smoking cannabis.
Example
More examples"Mine eyes gaze at thine metallic chalice."
Etymology
From Middle English chalis, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French chalice, collateral form of calice, borrowed from Latin calix, calicem (“cup”), of uncertain etymology. In view of Umbrian skalçeta (“sacrifical vessel”), perhaps from a Proto-Italic *(s)kalik-, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel-. Pokorny considered a parallel formation in Sanskrit कलश (kaláśa-, “(water-)jar, tub, pot, dish”), for Proto-Indo-European *kel-eḱ-, but De Vaan finds this unlikely. Alternatively, borrowed from Ancient Greek κύλιξ (kúlix) or an unattested variant thereof, maybe with contamination from κάλυξ (kálux, “shell, calyx”), but it is also possible that all were borrowed from related substrate words. Possible doublet of calyx and kelch. Compare Sumerian 𒃲(GAL).
Related phrases
More for "chalice"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.