Dominical

//dəˈmɪnɪk(ə)l// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person who keeps Sunday as a day of rest, but does not regard it as representing the Sabbath of the Old Testament of the Bible.

    "So far, therefore, the dominical and Sabbatarian are at one; save that the ground of exemption, in exceptional cases, which the dominical seeks to establish by general reasonings of his own, the Sabbatarian finds established to his hand by the words of Christ. It is true that the dominical may differ from the Sabbatarian on the question, What is a real case of "necessity and mercy," such as will justify a departure from the letter of the law? But so may a Sabbatarian differ from a Sabbatarian. So may a dominical from a dominical: […]"

  2. 2
    A payment legally due from a parishioner to the parish, because the parishioner's house was built on land, ownership of which would have originally obliged the landowner to pay a tithe to the parish. British, historical

    "Mr. Moore, in opening his case, stated that a custom obtained in this city [Exeter] of paying an annual amount of 4s. 8d. to the officiating clergyman of different parishes, which was termed dominicals. […] [T]he custom had existed for a long while in the parish of paying these dominicals, which might be taken in light of personal tithes, payable on land covered by houses."

  3. 3
    The Lord's Day; Sunday. obsolete

    "The Goſpels appointed by the Church for the three other Dominicals, or Lords Days in Advent, refer to the firſt manner of his [Jesus's] coming, to vvit, in humility to viſit and redeem his people."

  4. 4
    Ellipsis of dominical letter. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, obsolete

    "Let me not die your debtor, / My red Dominicall, my golden letter, / O that your face vvere not ſo full of Oes."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to Jesus Christ as Lord. not-comparable

    "The Dominical Prayer, and the Apoſtolical Creed, (vvhereof there vvas ſuch a hot diſpute in our laſt converſation) are tvvo Acts tending to the ſame object of devotion, yet they differ in this, that vve conclude all in the firſt, and ourſelves only in the ſecond, […]"

  2. 2
    Of or pertaining to the Lord's Day, Sunday. archaic, not-comparable

    "And vvho knovvs not the ſuperſtitious rigor of his Sundays Chapel, and the licentious remiſſneſs of his Sundays Theater; accompanied vvith that reverend Statute for Dominical Jigs and Maypoles, publiſht in his ovvn Name, and deriv'd from the example of his Father James."

  3. 3
    Of or pertaining to the ancient system of dominical letters, used for determining Sundays (particularly Easter Sunday) in any given year.; Of printed text: in a large size. figuratively, historical, not-comparable, obsolete

    "I haue compoſde a Dictionary, in vvhich / He is inſtructed, hovv, vvhen, and to vvhom / To be proud or humble; at vvhat times of the yeare / He may do a good deed for it ſelfe, and that is / VVrit in Dominicall letters, […]"

  4. 4
    Of or pertaining to the ancient system of dominical letters, used for determining Sundays (particularly Easter Sunday) in any given year.; Red, ruddy. figuratively, historical, not-comparable, obsolete

    "[T]hese nails that by good token have not been pared since eighty-eight, should have scratched your face till it had been a dominical one, and as full of red letters as any Pond's Almanac in Christendom."

Adjective
  1. 1
    of or relating to Sunday as the Lord's Day wordnet
  2. 2
    of or relating to or coming from Jesus Christ wordnet

Example

More examples

"The Dominical Prayer, and the Apoſtolical Creed, (vvhereof there vvas ſuch a hot diſpute in our laſt converſation) are tvvo Acts tending to the ſame object of devotion, yet they differ in this, that vve conclude all in the firſt, and ourſelves only in the ſecond, […]"

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English dominical (“(adjective) of or pertaining to the Lord’s day or Sunday; (noun) a book containing the liturgy for Sunday (?)”), borrowed from Medieval Latin dominicālis (“of or pertaining to Sunday, dominical”), from Latin dominicus (“of or belonging to a lord or master; (Ecclesiastical Latin) God’s, the Lord’s”) (compare diēs Dominicus (“the day of the Lord, Sunday”)) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship). Dominicus is derived from dominus (“lord, master”) (used in Latin versions of the Bible to translate titles of the God of the Hebrew Tanakh and Greek New Testament; probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dem- (“to arrange, put together; to build (up)”)) + -icus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Adjective senses 3.1 (“of printed text: in a large size”) and 3.2 (“red, ruddy”) refer to the practice of printing dominical letters in a large size, or in red. Cognates * French dominical

Related phrases

dominical daydominical letterdominical yeardominical lettereaster sundayjesus christlord's daylord's prayer

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