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• galilee
  galilee

  noun

  a porch or vestibule, often on the ground floor of a tower, at the entrance of some English churches.
• Galilee
  Galilee

  noun

  an ancient Roman province in what is now northern Israel.

galilee

¹ American  

[gal-uh-lee] / ˈgæl əˌli /

noun

1. a porch or vestibule, often on the ground floor of a tower, at the entrance of some English churches.

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Galilee ² American  

[gal-uh-lee] / ˈgæl əˌli /

noun

1. an ancient Roman province in what is now northern Israel.

2. Also called Kinneret, Tiberias. Sea of Galilee. a lake in northeastern Israel through which the Jordan River flows. 14 miles (23 kilometers) long; 682 feet (208 meters) below sea level.

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Galilee ¹ British  

/ ˈɡælɪˌliː /

noun

1. a lake in NE Israel, 209 m (686 ft) below sea level, through which the River Jordan flows. Area: 165 sq km (64 sq miles)

2. a northern region of Israel: scene of Christ's early ministry

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galilee ² British  

/ ˈɡælɪˌliː /

noun

1. a porch or chapel at the entrance to some medieval churches and cathedrals in England

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Etymology

Origin of galilee¹

1585–95; < Medieval Latin galilaea porch of a church, literally, Galilee; perhaps alluding to Galilee as a country of Gentiles (as opposed to Judaea), the porch being an area especially associated with the laity

Origin of Galilee²

From Old French Galilee, from Latin Galilaea, from Greek Galilaía , from Hebrew galil, haggalil “district, the district”

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

galilee Galilee

Was this the Early English porch now known as the galilee?

From Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ely A History and Description of the Building with a Short Account of the Monastery and of the See by W. D. (Walter Debenham) Sweeting

Durham, architecture of the choir and galilee of, 171.

From A Student's History of England, v. 1 (of 3) From the earliest times to the Death of King Edward VII by Samuel Rawson Gardiner

In the plan in Willis's "Survey of Cathedrals," 1727, the south part is described as the "South galilee, now the church workhouse," while on the north side we read, "Ruined part of Galilee."

From Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ely A History and Description of the Building with a Short Account of the Monastery and of the See by W. D. (Walter Debenham) Sweeting

The roof of the galilee was also removed, and the lancets at the west of the cathedral blocked up.

From Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ely A History and Description of the Building with a Short Account of the Monastery and of the See by W. D. (Walter Debenham) Sweeting

The south porch, which projects boldly in the form of a galilee, is scarcely to be excelled as a specimen of pointed architecture at its highest pitch of luxuriant beauty.

From Account of a Tour in Normandy, Volume 2 by Dawson Turner

The site was excavated by Prof. Gonen Sharon of Tel-Hai University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee and his colleagues.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 29, 2026

"Mohammed Bakri died this Wednesday at the Galilee Medical Center" in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya, hospital spokesperson Gal Zaid told AFP.

From Barron's ● Dec. 24, 2025

It sits above the Galilee Basin, one of the largest untapped coal reserves in the world, a 247,000-sq-km region containing more than 30 billion tonnes of coal.

From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2025

Residents like Galilee owned their houses but leased the small plots of land on which they sat.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2025

At a respectably subordinate distance behind Joseph came the women of Galilee, mixed in with a motley, perhaps gate-crashing crowd of mourners, spectators, children, and no less than three frisky, impious mongrels.

From "Nine Stories" by J. D. Salinger

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