Simony
noun ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The buying or selling of spiritual or sacred things, such as ecclesiastical offices, pardons, or consecrated objects. countable, uncountable
"To his eyes it had no attraction; it savoured of simony, and was likely to bring down upon him harder and more deserved strictures than any he had yet received: he positively declined to become vicar of Puddingdale under any circumstances."
- 2 traffic in ecclesiastical offices or preferments wordnet
Example
More examples"To his eyes it had no attraction; it savoured of simony, and was likely to bring down upon him harder and more deserved strictures than any he had yet received: he positively declined to become vicar of Puddingdale under any circumstances."
Etymology
From Middle English simonie, symonye, from Old French simonie, from Late Latin simonia, named after Simon Magus (Hebrew שִׁמְעוֹן (Šimʻôn, “Simon”)), with reference to Acts 8:18–20.
More for "simony"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.