doxology
Americannoun
plural
doxologies-
a hymn or form of words containing an ascription of praise to God.
-
the Doxology, the metrical formula beginning “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”
noun
Other Word Forms
- doxological adjective
- doxologically adverb
Etymology
Origin of doxology
1640–50; < Medieval Latin doxologia < Greek, equivalent to doxo- (combining form of dóxa honor, glory) + -logia -logy
Explanation
You're most likely to hear a doxology in a Christian church, since it's a short religious verse or prayer that is sung. The brief chant or song that comes at the end of a prayer in a Catholic church is one kind of doxology. In the Lord's Prayer, which is common in many different Christian churches, the final line ending in "forever and ever, amen," was added on to the original ancient Biblical manuscripts and is considered a doxology. The word comes from the Greek doxologia, "praise or glory," a combination of doxa, "glory," and logos, "a speaking."
Vocabulary lists containing doxology
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.
Together, they are trying to understand why the doxology, always sung “in one way and one way only” suddenly has been “pepped up” with an energetic organ accompaniment.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 21, 2025
The nondenominational New Life Church in Colorado Springs, for example, which has hosted prosperity-gospel preachers, was, in pre-pandemic times, concluding some of its services with an Anglican hymn to the Trinity known as a doxology.
From New York Times • May 8, 2020
Photograph: Screenshot Pope Francis sings the doxology: “Through him and with him and in him”.
From The Guardian • Sep. 20, 2015
BST09:52 Pope Francis sings the doxology: “Through him and with him and in him”.
From The Guardian • Sep. 20, 2015
As originally written, both hymns closed with the famous doxology given above.
From The Story of Our Hymns by Ryden, Ernest Edwin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
