ecclesiastical
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ecclesiastical
late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; see origin at Ecclesiastes, -ical
Explanation
Anything ecclesiastical is related to the Christian church. An ecclesiastical office is the office at a church, and a nun’s habit is ecclesiastical dress. A hat with a propeller on top is not. Ecclesiastical things have to do with Christian churches or the clergy. Pews, readings from the Bible, and stained glass windows are all part of the ecclesiastical world. The ecclesiastical hierarchy is the pecking order of the clergy, and high-ranking clergy are considered to be ecclesiastical authorities. Secular is the opposite of ecclesiastical.
Vocabulary lists containing ecclesiastical
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I've Been to the Mountaintop" (1968)
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"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr.
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World Religions
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Yet despite the local ecclesiastical authorities approving the scene, the installation in central Brussels has come under fire online since opening on Friday, with right-wing Belgian politician Georges-Louis Bouchez even comparing the figures to "zombies".
From Barron's ● Dec. 2, 2025
The Independent notes that he was seen as a "saintly" and "ecclesiastical" figure on Fleet Street.
From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2025
After the war, Faÿ was sentenced to a lifetime of hard labor, but he escaped from prison in 1951 dressed in ecclesiastical costume, with the help of—here one reaches for the phrase “incredible but true”—Toklas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
“BYU is a part of the Church and is a university that stands to help promote the Church’s ecclesiastical mission. I think that’s a form of messaging through one of its institutions.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2025
Paris in the twelfth century was expanding fast, as was its university, which was beginning to shrug off its ecclesiastical roots and embrace a more secular approach to learning.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
