compline

American  

[kom-plin, -plahyn] / ˈkɒm plɪn, -plaɪn /

Also complin

noun

Ecclesiastical.

1. the last of the seven canonical hours, or the service for it, originally occurring after the evening meal but now usually following immediately upon vespers.

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compline British  

/ ˈkɒmplɪn, ˈkɒmplɪn, -plaɪn /

noun

1. RC Church the last of the seven canonical hours of the divine office

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Etymology

Origin of compline

1175–1225; Middle English comp ( e ) lin, equivalent to compli, cump ( e ) lie (< Old French complie, cumplie < Latin complēta ( hōra ) complete (hour) + -in (of matin )

Example Sentences

I have also, for example, gathered over Zoom with friends for compline, a nighttime prayer with roots in the medieval monastic tradition.

From New York Times

He is no longer strong enough, he said, to regularly attend the first or last of Mepkin’s seven daily prayer services — vigils at 3:20 a.m., and compline at 7:35 p.m.

From New York Times

As I stared at it, the bells in its square steeple rang the hour of compline.

From Literature

During the season of Lent, the service of compline will be sung each Sunday night.

From Washington Post

In the end, my longing for evensong was satisfied by the twilit encore, Gustav Holst’s setting of the “Nunc Dimittis,” the Latin canticle for the nighttime service of compline.

From Washington Post