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parish

American  
[par-ish] / ˈpær ɪʃ /

noun

  1. an ecclesiastical district having its own church and member of the clergy.

  2. a local church with its field of activity.

  3. (in Louisiana) a county.

  4. the people of an ecclesiastical or civil parish.

  5. Curling. house.

idioms

  1. on the parish,

    1. receiving charity from local authorities.

    2. Informal. meagerly or inadequately supplied.

parish British  
/ ˈpærɪʃ /

noun

  1. a subdivision of a diocese, having its own church and a clergyman

  2. the churchgoers of such a subdivision

  3. (in England and, formerly, Wales) the smallest unit of local government in rural areas

  4. (in Louisiana) a unit of local government corresponding to a county in other states of the US

  5. the people living in a parish

  6. history receiving parochial relief

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • interparish adjective
  • transparish adjective

Etymology

Origin of parish

1250–1300; Middle English, variant of parosshe < Middle French paroisse < Late Latin parochia, alteration of paroecia < Late Greek paroikía, derivative of Greek pároikos neighbor, (in Christian usage) sojourner ( paroicous ); -ia

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.

Along with a thousand or so other Catholics, Dowling had walked more than a mile from a nearby parish church to the Broadview facility.

From Salon • Apr. 6, 2026

It is not only Christian villages suffering in this war added al-Jamal, who leads the parish choir.

From Barron's • Apr. 5, 2026

QLAYAA, Lebanon — The bells rang, their peals obscuring the buzz of the Israeli drone overhead as the casket of Father Pierre al-Rahi arrived at the parish he had served.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 11, 2026

In my five years as bishop of Joliet, our diocese went through a restructuring that required parish mergers and hard decisions.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 26, 2026

I will always be grateful to the parish priest who forced a mortician to remove an elaborate arrangement of flowers from a coffin: ‘Don’t hide it!’

From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez

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.