benefice
Americannoun
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a position or post granted to an ecclesiastic that guarantees a fixed amount of property or income.
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the revenue itself.
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the equivalent of a fief in the early Middle Ages.
verb (used with object)
noun
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Christianity an endowed Church office yielding an income to its holder; a Church living
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the property or revenue attached to such an office
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(in feudal society) a tenement (piece of land) held by a vassal from a landowner on easy terms or free, esp in return for military support See also vassalage
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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beneficesimple
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beneficessimple
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have beneficedperfect
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has beneficedperfect
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am beneficingprogressive
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are beneficingprogressive
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is beneficingprogressive
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have been beneficingperfect progressive
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has been beneficingperfect progressive
Past
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beneficedsimple
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had beneficedperfect
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was beneficingprogressive
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were beneficingprogressive
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had been beneficingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of benefice
1300–50; Middle English < Middle French < Latin beneficium service, kindness ( benefic ( us ) benefic + -ium -ium )
Vocabulary lists containing benefice
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.
See Examples For:
The church, she says, is one of 15 in the benefice.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2023
The benefice of Middleton was merged with neighbouring Great Henny.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2023
Swift was lucky to be left with a dreary benefice in Dublin, the deanship of St. Patrick's Cathedral.
From Time Magazine Archive
Its marble lions gaze out with dignity over trash and traffic alike, and the lofty portico proclaims the institution's origins in the heady days of 19th century hope and public benefice.
From Time Magazine Archive
According to his own principles, he would have committed a great sin, if he had interfered, for the purpose of obtaining a benefice, on the most honorable terms, for the most pious divine.
From Dealings with the Dead, Volume I (of 2) by School, A Sexton of the Old
Some tycoons have crafted named benefices: the Broad and David Geffen foundations, for example.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2025
Nearly 2,600 are benefices controlled by Anglican laymen as private patrons.
From Time Magazine Archive
Through the appointment of bishops, deans and through the patronage of many benefices, it would be possible for the State to control the Church for its own purposes..
From Time Magazine Archive
By signing the Act of Separation, 474 clergymen and professors surrendered the benefices they held under the Establishment.
From Time Magazine Archive
In these chapters new members were admitted into the order; lands were bought, sold, and exchanged; and presentations were made by the Master to vacant benefices.
From The History of the Knights Templars, the Temple Church, and the Temple by Addison, Charles G.
The effigy was that of Francis Zafra, the beneficed priest of the parish of St. Vincent of Seville, who was condemned as a Lutheran, but had made his escape.
From The History of the Inquisition of Spain from the Time of its Establishment to the Reign of Ferdinand VII. by Llorente, Juan Antonio
It was not, indeed, until 1662 that it was legally necessary for a beneficed clergyman to have been so ordained.
From Breaking with the Past Catholic Principles Abandoned at the Reformation by Farley, John Cardinal
Inclosures, hedges, ditches and the like are included in things “of which the beneficed person hath the burden and charge of reparation.”
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 4 "Diameter" to "Dinarchus" by Various
In the meantime Use my ring to my chaplain; he is beneficed At my manor of Gotham, and call'd Parson Welldo: 'Tis no matter for a license, I'll bear him out in't.
From The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 4, April 1810 by Carpenter, S. C. (Stephen Cullen)
No layman is accepted by the Bishop for Ordination without Letters Testimonial—i.e. the testimony of three beneficed Clergymen, to whom he is well known.
From The Church: Her Books and Her Sacraments by Holmes, E. E.
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.
