Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Christianity The seventh Sunday after Easter, commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In the New Testament, a Jewish harvest festival called in the Old Testament (Deut. xvi. 10, etc.) the feast of weeks (Hebrew Shabuoth), and observed on the fiftieth day after the 14th of Nisan, the date of the celebration of the Passover.
  • noun The feast of Whitsunday, a festival of the Christian church, observed annually in remembrance of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles during the feast of Pentecost.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A solemn festival of the Jews; -- so called because celebrated on the fiftieth day (seven weeks) after the second day of the Passover (which fell on the sixteenth of the Jewish month Nisan); -- hence called, also, the Feast of Weeks. At this festival an offering of the first fruits of the harvest was made. By the Jews it was generally regarded as commemorative of the gift of the law on the fiftieth day after the departure from Egypt.
  • noun A festival of the Roman Catholic and other churches in commemoration of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles; which occurred on the day of Pentecost; -- called also Whitsunday.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun The particular (Jewish) Pentecost 49 days (inclusive) after the resurrection of Jesus on the (Jewish) Day of First Fruits, when (in Christian teaching) the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles with miraculous effects including the ability to explain the Gospel intelligibly in languages they did not know; or a similar occasion since.
  • proper noun Christian festival (also known as Whitsun or Whitsunday), which commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles (see above definition).
  • proper noun Pentecostal manifestation, such as in a church service.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun seventh Sunday after Easter; commemorates the emanation of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles; a quarter day in Scotland
  • noun (Judaism) Jewish holy day celebrated on the sixth of Sivan to celebrate Moses receiving the Ten Commandments

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English pentecoste, from Old English Pentecosten, from Late Latin Pentēcostē, from Greek pentēkostē (hēmerā), fiftieth (day), feminine of pentēkostos, fiftieth, from pentēkonta, fifty; see penkwe in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek πεντηκοστή (pentēkostē, "fiftieth").

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Examples

  • … The term Pentecost was first used by Christians to refer to this seven-week period as a unit: "the Pentecost," or the fifty days.

    internetmonk.com Chaplain Mike 2010

  • Now when that festival which we call Pentecost was at hand, all the places about the temple, and the whole city, was full of a multitude of people that were come out of the country, and which were the greatest part of them armed also, at which time Phasaelus guarded the wall, and

    The Wars of the Jews; or the history of the destruction of Jerusalem Flavius Josephus 1709

  • And truly he did not speak falsely in saying so; for that festival, which we call Pentecost, did then fall out to be the next day to the

    Antiquities of the Jews Flavius Josephus 1709

  • Tertullian refers to the period, which he called the Pentecost, as a laetissimum spatium, a "most joyous space" in which it is especially fitting that baptisms take place.

    internetmonk.com Chaplain Mike 2010

  • In the Old Testament the feast of Pentecost (from the Greek word for “fiftieth”) was one of the three great pilgrimage festivals of Israel, a celebration of the spring harvest that took place fifty days after the offering of first fruits at Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

    Pentecost Sunday: The Church made manifest 2009

  • However, it is with regard to the modern Roman liturgy that we see a matter of probably wider liturgical interest; namely, the suppression of the ancient octave of Pentecost from the modern Roman calendar -- an octave being the extended liturgical celebration of a particular feast for a period of eight days.

    Two Reforms Associated with Pentecost: The Vigil and the Octave 2009

  • In the Old Testament the feast of Pentecost (from the Greek word for “fiftieth”) was one of the three great pilgrimage festivals of Israel, a celebration of the spring harvest that took place fifty days after the offering of first fruits at Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

    Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog: 2009

  • Just a reminder that Pentecost is nine days away, so the "original" novena (nine days of prayer) starts today.

    Archive 2008-05-01 regina doman 2008

  • Just a reminder that Pentecost is nine days away, so the "original" novena (nine days of prayer) starts today.

    Novena to the Holy Spirit Starts Today regina doman 2008

  • Dave Pentecost is one of a number of volunteer filmmakers who worked with Michael Moore to document election day conditions at polling sites throughout Ohio.

    Boing Boing 2004

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