Evensong

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A religious service, most commonly seen in the Anglican or Episcopal Church, that takes place in the early hours of the evening; originally, and sometimes still, an alternative name for vespers or a service combining vespers and compline.
  2. 2
    the sixth of the seven canonical hours of the divine office; early evening; now often made a public service on Sundays wordnet

Example

More examples

"Some old folks said this cottage had been the church-house where in ancient days the people who came to divine service stayed between morning prayer and evensong, ate their mid-day meal and gave out and received their hebdomadal quotient of gossip."

Etymology

From Old English ǣfensang, equivalent to even + song.

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