noun ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   People of a church who are not ordained clergy or clerics.
2. 2
   in Christianity, members of a religious community that do not have the priestly responsibilities of ordained clergy wordnet
3. 3
   The common man or woman.
4. 4
   The unlearned, untrained or ignorant.

Synonyms

All synonyms

assemblybrethrenchurchgoerclassflockfold

Antonyms

All antonyms

clergy

Example

More examples

"Algeria has created Islamist terrorism of the 90s to bar the road to the laity Kabyle."

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman laite, from Latin laitas, from Ancient Greek λαός (laós, “people”).

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