Definitions

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

  • noun The position, term, or office of a bishop.
  • noun The area of jurisdiction of a bishop; a diocese.
  • noun Bishops considered as a group.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To act as a bishop; fill the office of a prelate.
  • noun The office and dignity of a bishop; a bishopric.
  • noun The incumbency of a bishop.
  • noun The order of bishops; the episcopal institution; a body of bishops.

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

  • noun A bishopric; the office and dignity of a bishop.
  • noun The collective body of bishops.
  • noun The time of a bishop's rule.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To act as a bishop; to fill the office of a prelate.

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

  • noun Bishops seen as a group.
  • noun The tenure in office of a bishop.
  • noun rare A bishop's jurisdiction, the extent of his diocese.

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

  • noun the office and dignity of a bishop
  • noun the collective body of bishops
  • noun the term of office of a bishop
  • noun the territorial jurisdiction of a bishop

Etymologies

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

[Late Latin episcopātus, from episcopus, bishop; see bishop.]

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