Ecumene

//iːˈkjuː.mə.ni// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    All known inhabited and civilized areas of the world. archaic

    "Near-synonym: civilization"

  2. 2
    Unification of Christianity and of Christendom.

Synonyms

All synonyms
civilization

Example

More examples

"Ninety-five per cent of the cultivated area of the country lies east of a line drawn from Tsitsihar (Ch'i-ch'i-ha-erh) in northern Manchuria to K'un-ming in Yün-nan Province. This is eastern China, and within it is the Chinese ecumene."

Etymology

From Ancient Greek οἰκουμένη (oikouménē, “inhabited world”), from οἰκέω (oikéō, “I inhabit, dwell”), from οἶκος (oîkos, “residence”).

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