chancel

[chan-suh l, chahn-]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR chancel ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

the space about the altar of a church, usually enclosed, for the clergy and other officials.

Nearby words

Origin of chancel

1275–1325; Middle English < Middle French < Late Latin cancellus lattice, railing or screen before the altar of a church, Latin cancell(ī) (plural) lattice, railing, grating; see cancel

Related formschan·celed, chan·celled, adjectivesub·chan·cel, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for chancel

My chair was near the chancel rail, I now turned toward the west end of the church.
Read ‘The King in Yellow,’ the ‘True Detective’ Reference That’s the Key to the Show|Robert W. Chambers|February 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Since 1996, Bolding has been director of the Chancel Choir (renamed The Inspirational Voices of Abyssinian in 2008).
Women in the World Speakers|The Daily Beast|March 8, 2010|DAILY BEAST
He was putting on his robes in the chancel, before the looking-glass, with the dignified leisureliness that was his wont.
The Retrospect|Ada Cambridge
Among the effigied tombs of the Fauconbergs which line the chancel we find that of Sterne's friend who gave him this living.
A Literary Pilgrimage Among the Haunts of Famous British Authors|Theodore F. (Theodore Frelinghuysen) Wolfe

The unusually fine chancel arch is Transitional; the chancel itself is probably early fourteenth–century work.
Warwickshire|Clive Holland
The Solo organ and one-third of the Pedal organ are under the first arch on the north side of the chancel.
The Recent Revolution in Organ Building|George Laing Miller
The tomb and effigy of the Prior of Wombridge, 1526, and some Elizabethan monuments are in the chancel.
The Motor Routes of England|Gordon Home

British Dictionary definitions for chancel

chancel

noun

the part of a church containing the altar, sanctuary, and choir, usually separated from the nave and transepts by a screen

Word Origin for chancel

C14: from Old French, from Latin cancellī (plural) lattice

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

Word Origin and History for chancel

chancel

c.1300, "part of the church around the altar," from Old French chancel, from Late Latin cancellus "lattice," from Latin cancelli (plural) "grating, bars" (see cancel); sense extended in Late Latin from the lattice-work that separated the choir from the nave in a church to the space itself.