Homily
adv, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A sermon, especially concerning a practical matter.
"O moſt gentle Iupiter! What tedious homilie of Loue haue you wearied your pariſhioners withall, and neuer cri'de, haue patience good people."
- 2 a sermon on a moral or religious topic wordnet
- 3 A moralizing lecture.
"How expreſſe and poſitive the doctrine of our Church is againſt them, our English Homily entitled Againſt the perill of idolatry, abundantly declareth; […]"
- 4 A platitude.
- 1 In a homey manner.
"Rocky handed it [the beer] to Bob, whose demurrals petered out as he held the can's cold actuality in his hand. It bore the smiling face of Lynn Swann. He opened it. Leo farted homily to close the transaction."
Example
More examples"In his Epiphany homily Monday in St. Peter's Basilica, Francis encouraged people to focus on serving others, not themselves."
Etymology
From Middle English omelī, omelīe, omelye, from Old French omelie and directly from Late Latin homīlia (“homily”), from Ancient Greek ὁμῑλίᾱ (homīlíā, “homily; instruction”), from ὅμῑλος (hómīlos, “crowd, throng”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming abstract feminine nouns). ὅμῑλος is derived from ὁμός (homós, “common; same”) + ῑ̓́λη (ī́lē, “crowd”) (from εἴλω (eílō, “to aggregate”)).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.