clerisy
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of clerisy
1818; < German Klerisei clergy < Medieval Latin clēricia, equivalent to clēric ( us ) cleric + -ia -ia; introduced by S.T. Coleridge
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.
He will face opposition from many on the Fed staff and from the central-banking clerisy that includes the recent Fed chairs he has criticized.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
On the one hand, their contributions to stunning wartime technological breakthroughs—radar, sonar, rocketry, and above all the atomic bomb—had transformed them into an intellectual clerisy, holding the keys to the nation’s future.
From Slate ● Mar. 17, 2025
You have never met a more cocksure lot than the monetary-policy clerisy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2016
Fortunately, a saving clerisy, a vanguard composed of the understanding few, know where history is going and how to help it get there.
From Washington Post ● May 29, 2015
But, alas! the ignorance of the essential distinction of a national clerisy, the 'Ecclesia', from the Christian Church.
From The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Henry Nelson Coleridge
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
