mosque

American  

[mosk, mawsk] / mɒsk, mɔsk /

noun

1. a Muslim temple or place of public worship.

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mosque British  

/ mɒsk /

noun

1. Also called: masjid.   musjid.  a Muslim place of worship, usually having one or more minarets and often decorated with elaborate tracery and texts from the Koran

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mosque Cultural  

1. A Muslim house of worship with at least one minaret, a tall, slender tower with balconies, used for calling the faithful to prayer.

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Etymology

Origin of mosque

1600–10; earlier mosquee < Middle French < Italian moschea ≪ Arabic masjid, derivative of sajada to worship, literally, prostrate oneself; the -ee seems to have been taken as diminutive suffix and dropped

Compare meaning

How does mosque compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• masjid vs. mosque

Example Sentences

A senior police official told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that the explosion occurred after Friday prayers, when mosques around the country are packed with worshippers.

From Barron's

The walls of the local mosque had images of slain Iranian generals, including renowned covert operations commander Qassem Suleimani, glued on them.

From Barron's

At Herat's central mosque, which is covered in blue ceramic tiles, there are delicate floral and geometric motifs created by Behzad.

From Barron's

Inside a tented mosque, she sits on the floor listening to a litany of woes from women, many of them widows, living in grinding poverty and pain, without assistance.

From BBC

But inside the ruins of a mosque, a restoration crew is hard at work rebuilding this piece of Suakin, over a century after the city was abandoned.

From Barron's

Related Words

• chapel
• church
• holy place
• house of worship
• place of worship
• sanctuary
• shrine
• synagogue