chalice
Americannoun
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Ecclesiastical.
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a cup for the wine of the Eucharist or Mass.
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the wine contained in it.
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a drinking cup or goblet.
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a cuplike blossom.
noun
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poetic a drinking cup; goblet
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Christianity a gold or silver cup containing the wine at Mass
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the calyx of a flower, esp a cup-shaped calyx
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of chalice
before 900; Middle English < Middle French < Latin calici- (stem of calix ) cup; replacing Middle English caliz, calc, Old English calic < Latin calici-, as above
Explanation
A chalice is a bowl-shaped drinking vessel. Chalices were all the rage back in King Arthur's day. You won't come across the word chalice very often today (outside of books, anyway) unless you hang out at those Renaissance fairs where everyone dresses up as knights. The term "poisoned chalice" is good for describing something that looks beneficial, but is actually harmful.
Vocabulary lists containing chalice
"Macbeth": Act 1 Scene 7
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The Poet X
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Novel Study: Macbeth, Acts 1–2
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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.
Chalice recently released a pre-feasibility study into Gonneville.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 8, 2026
Along with olives, Chalice Farm also grows perennial vegetables, fruit and nuts on their sunshine-drenched land surrounded by creeks and forested ridge.
From Salon • Nov. 2, 2024
I was writing The Chalice and the Blade, but I didn’t really show it to him until 1984.
From Scientific American • Sep. 28, 2023
Some of them involve a comically angry Devil who lusts after Cuphead’s soul; others revolve around the Betty Boop-like Miss Chalice or the torch-singing sea monster Cala Maria, who provides Dietrich-accented Hollywood glamour.
From New York Times • Sep. 28, 2022
"Then he stays in Chalice until he decides to become so."
From Rastignac the Devil by Farmer, Philip José
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.
