Melkite

American  

[mel-kahyt] / ˈmɛl kaɪt /

Or Melchite

noun

1. a Christian in Egypt and Syria who accepted the definition of faith adopted by the Council of Chalcedon in a.d. 451.

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adjective

1. of or relating to the Melkites.

Etymology

Origin of Melkite

First recorded in 1610–20; from Medieval Latin Melchīta, from Medieval Greek Melchī́tēs, from Syriac malkākyā “royalist” (i.e., a supporter of the Byzantine emperor), from Syriac malkā “king” + Greek noun suffix -ītēs -ite ¹

Example Sentences

It may sound like a small number, but it is a loss the village can ill afford, said Father Jack-Nobel Abed of Taybeh’s Greek Melkite Catholic Church.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 6, 2025

He also was a former president of the parish council of Holy Transfiguration Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Vienna, Va.

From Washington Post • Dec. 3, 2021

The flight is so pronounced that, in 2013, Gregory III, the Melkite Patriarch of Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, wrote an open letter to his flock: “Despite all your suffering, stay here! Don’t emigrate!”

From The New Yorker • Apr. 14, 2017

In Syria, Gregorios III Laham, the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of the Church of Antioch, said in 2013 that “entire villages” have been “cleared of their Christian inhabitants.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 18, 2015

The orthodox or Melkite party, consisting mostly of Byzantine Greeks, was swept away, and the double succession of patriarchs practically ceased.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 3 "Convention" to "Copyright" by Various