established church


noun
  1. a church that is recognized by law, and sometimes financially supported, as the official church of a nation.

Origin of established church

1
First recorded in 1650–60

Words Nearby established church

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use established church in a sentence

  • But if the established church was the one favoured body, it had to pay dearly for its privileges.

    Is Ulster Right? | Anonymous
  • These people called themselves puritans, as pretending to a purer faith than those of the established church.

British Dictionary definitions for Established Church

Established Church

noun
  1. a Church that is officially recognized as a national institution, esp the Church of England

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for established church (1 of 2)

established church

A church supported by the government as a national institution. The Church of England is an established church in England, as is the Lutheran Church in the countries of Scandinavia and the Presbyterian Church in Scotland.

established church

A religious denomination that receives financial and other support from the government, often to the exclusion of support for other denominations. (See under “World Literature, Philosophy, and Religion.”)

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.