Definitions

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

  • noun The political assembly of citizens of an ancient Greek state.
  • noun A church or congregation.
  • noun The collective body of Christian believers regarded as constituting a universal church.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An assembly; the great assembly of the people in certain ancient Greek states, as Athens, at which every free citizen had a right to vote.
  • noun A society for Christian worship; a church; a congregation: the Greek and Latin name, sometimes used in English writing with reference to the early church.

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

  • noun (Gr. Antiq.) The public legislative assembly of the Athenians.
  • noun (Eccl.) A church, either as a body or as a building.

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

  • noun historiography The public legislative assembly of the Athenians.
  • noun ecclesiastical A church, either as a body or as a building.
  • noun biblical The congregation, the group of believers, symbolic body or building.

Etymologies

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

[Latin ecclēsia, from Greek ekklēsiā, from ekkalein, to summon forth : ek-, out; see ecto– + kalein, klē-, to call; see kelə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin ecclesia

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