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Definitions

Proper Noun

1. 1
   A Christian religious service celebrated by the Western Church on the evening before or early morning of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, involving the gradual extinguishing of candles while a series of readings and psalms are chanted or recited.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin tenebrae (“shadows, darkness”).

Related phrases

good fridayholy saturdaymaundy thursday

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