Book of Common Prayer

American  

noun

1. the service book of the Church of England, essentially adopted but changed in details by other churches of the Anglican communion.

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Book of Common Prayer British  

noun

1. the official book of church services of the Church of England, until 1980, when the Alternative Service Book was sanctioned

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Book of Common Prayer ¹ Cultural  

1. The book used in worship by the Anglican Communion; it has had several revisions since the Reformation, and different versions exist for different countries.

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Book of Common Prayer ² Cultural  

1. The book used in worship by the Anglican Communion. Its early versions, from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, were widely admired for the dignity and beauty of their language.

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The Book of Common Prayer, widely admired for the dignity and beauty of its language, has had a strong effect on the worship of Protestants outside the Anglican Communion, many of whom have borrowed its expressions. Most traditional Protestant wedding ceremonies, for example, follow the pattern of the Book of Common Prayer very closely.

The Book of Common Prayer has had a strong effect on literature in English through such expressions as “Let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace,” and “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done.”

Example Sentences

The ironic title of “In Our Time” comes from the Book of Common Prayer: “Give peace in our time, O Lord.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 24, 2025

The following year, the Act of Uniformity of 1559 brought back the Book of Common Prayer as the only legal form of worship in England.

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

The show began with reflections on the Book of Common Prayer, and ended in secular scripture, Patti Smith performing Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom.”

From Seattle Times • Sep. 21, 2022

The rites performed in the Church of England service come from the Order of the Burial of the Dead from the Book of Common Prayer.

From New York Times • Sep. 13, 2022

And on the floor were two books, the hymnal and the Book of Common Prayer, one on top of the other.

From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck