recessional

[ri-sesh-uh-nl]

adjective

1. of or relating to a recession of the clergy and choir after the service.

2. of or relating to a recess, as of a legislative body.

noun

1. a hymn or other piece of music played at the end of a service while the congregation is filing out.

recessional

/ rɪˈsɛʃənəl /

adjective

1. of or relating to recession

noun

1. a hymn sung as the clergy and choir withdraw from the chancel at the conclusion of a church service

Word History and Origins

Origin of recessional¹

First recorded in 1865–70; recession ¹ + -al ¹

Example Sentences

Now, looming just over history’s horizon are three more imperial crises in Gaza, Taiwan and Ukraine that could cumulatively turn a slow imperial recessional into an all-too-rapid decline, if not collapse.

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That was the time of Rudyard Kipling’s “long recessional” and A. E. Housman’s “land of lost content.”

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Hidden Horns As a surprise to guests, the couple hired the band Hudson Horns to play for their recessional.

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Her brothers, Sandy and James McIntryre, escorted her; Sandy, who would later lead a recessional while playing bagpipes, wore a kilt.

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A good “old school singalong song,” he said his wife’s family introduced it to him, and the couple used it as the recessional song at their wedding.

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