Vespers

//ˈvɛsˌpɝz// name, noun

name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The sixth of the seven canonical hours, an evening prayer service plural, plural-only, uncountable
  2. 2
    plural of vesper form-of, plural
  3. 3
    the sixth of the seven canonical hours of the divine office; early evening; now often made a public service on Sundays wordnet
  4. 4
    A massacre euphemistic, uncountable
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A Christian service held in the late afternoon or early evening; evensong

Synonyms

All synonyms
churchdevotionsduskdutyevensonggloaming

Example

More examples

"She explained to the Lord of Ravenswood that they were under the necessity of separating so soon as the bell of a chapel, belonging to a hermitage in the adjoining wood, now long ruinous, should toll the hour of vespers."

Etymology

From Middle English vespers, from Old French vespres (French vêpres), from Ecclesiastical Latin vesperae (“vespers”), substantivisation of relational Late Latin vesperus (“evening”), from vesper (“evening”) + -us. Euphemistic use first as Vèpres éphésiennes (“Ephesian Vespers”), coined in 1890 by historian Théodore Reinach by analogy with the Sicilian Vespers.

Related phrases

Asiatic VespersSicilian Vesperscanonical hours

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