Definitions

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

  • adjective Having a head bishop who is not responsible to any higher-ranking ecclesiastical authority. Used of churches in the Eastern Orthodox communion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having a head or chief of its own; independent of jurisdiction: applied to a church.
  • Acting as an independent head; having primary jurisdiction: as, an autocephalous bishop or metropolitan.

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

  • adjective (Eccl. Hist.) Having its own head; independent of episcopal or patriarchal jurisdiction, as certain Greek churches.

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

  • adjective Christianity, of a church or bishop Self-governing or autonomous: independent of other episcopal jurisdiction.

Etymologies

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

[From Byzantine Greek autokephalos : auto-, auto- + kephalos, head; see ghebh-el- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek αὐτοκέφαλος (autoképhalos), from αὐτο- ("auto-") + κεφαλή (kephalē, "head").

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Examples

Comments

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  • I was a bit suprised to learn that this isn't a medical/scientific term. From RH Unabridged:

    1. (of a church) having its own head or chief bishop, though in communion with other Orthodox churches.

    2. (of a bishop) subordinate to no superior authority; self-governing.

    July 23, 2007