churchly

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
21
Words With Friends
22
Letters
8
Pronunciation
/t͡ʃɜːt͡ʃ.li/
See all 2 pronunciations
/t͡ʃɜːt͡ʃ.li/ · /t͡ʃɝt͡ʃ.li/

Definition of churchly

4 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Pertaining to or relating to the church, its government, forms, or ceremonies; ecclesiastical.
    “[...] upon getting their hearts right in the sight of God, confident, meanwhile, that then all churchly things would not only be conserved, but gathered into right form.”
    “There are gays and lesbians within the Church who steadfastly refuse to leave it, be booted out, or be closeted within it. Their churchly involvement, in this sense, ought not to be merely a matter of curiosity to the non-religious.”
See all 4 definitions

adj

  1. Pertaining to or relating to the church, its government, forms, or ceremonies; ecclesiastical.
    “[...] upon getting their hearts right in the sight of God, confident, meanwhile, that then all churchly things would not only be conserved, but gathered into right form.”
    “There are gays and lesbians within the Church who steadfastly refuse to leave it, be booted out, or be closeted within it. Their churchly involvement, in this sense, ought not to be merely a matter of curiosity to the non-religious.”
  2. Devoted to, or inclined to attach great importance to, the order and ritual of a particular section of the Christian church.
    “And in the Smiths of Stratford, in Suffolk, of whom we would now discourse, a middle class family of no great opulence, we have signs of the churchly instinct passing down from generation to generation, [...]”
  3. In accordance with ecclesiastical standards or ceremonies; appropriate for or befitting a church.
    “churchly music”
    “The church was in the house of Aquila and Priscilla, in the tent of Abraham, and in the palace of David. It must be in every Christian home, and every Christian home must be in the church. In a word, our families must be churchly.”
  4. Characteristic of a church; churchy.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English *chirchely, *chirchelich, from Old English ċiriclīċ (“ecclesiastical”), equivalent to church + -ly. Cognate with Scots kirkly (“ecclesiastical”), Dutch kerkelijk (“ecclesiastic, ecclesiastical”), German kirchlich (“ecclesiastical, religious, ecclesiastic”), Swedish kyrklig (“ecclesiastical”). Compare also churchlike.

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