Galilee
//ˈɡælɪliː// name, noun
name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A narthex, particularly in the United Kingdom and the Church of England; a vestibule, a fully-enclosed yet porch-like structure, leading to the main body of an English ecclesiastical building.
- 2 In certain Syriac Christian churches, the baptistry.
Proper Noun
- 1 A mountainous geographic region in northern Israel.
"Last spring I organised a race for birdwatchers in Jenin, and we had 21 Palestinians participating. They came from as far as the Naqab desert and the Galilee."
- 2 The Sea of Galilee.
- 3 A village in Narragansett, Rhode Island.
Example
More examples"On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee."
Etymology
Etymology 1
From late Middle English galilie, from Old French galilee, from Medieval Latin galilaea, from Latin Galilaea (“Galilee”). Possibly the allusion is to Galilee being an outlying region of Biblical Palestine.
Etymology 2
Inherited from Middle English Galilee, from Old French Galilee, from Latin Galilaea, from Ancient Greek Γᾰλῑλαίᾱ (Gălīlaíā), from Hebrew גָּלִיל (galíl).
Related phrases
More for "galilee"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.