What does "ecclesiastical" mean?

Of or pertaining to the church.

What is a synonym for "ecclesiastical"?

Common synonyms include: abbatial, abbatical, apostolic, archiepiscopal, canonical, capitular.

How do you pronounce "ecclesiastical"?

Pronounced //əˌkli.ziˈæ.stə.kəl//.

Ecclesiastical

//əˌkli.ziˈæ.stə.kəl// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1
Of or pertaining to the church.
"ecclesiastical architecture"

Adjective

1
of or associated with a church (especially a Christian Church) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

abbatial abbatical apostolic archiepiscopal canonical capitular

Antonyms

All antonyms

antiecclesiastical nonecclesiastical temporal

Example

More examples

"The fishermen in that lake see distinctly under the water, in calm weather, ecclesiastical towers, which, according to the custom of the country, are slender and lofty, and moreover round; and they frequently point them out to strangers travelling through these parts, who wonder what could have caused such a catastrophe."

Etymology

From Middle English ecclesiasticall, ecclesiasticalle, from Latin ecclēsiasticus + -al. By surface analysis, ecclesiastic + -al or ecclesiast + -ical.

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