Definitions

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

  • noun A building or place of meeting for worship and religious instruction in the Jewish faith.
  • noun A congregation of Jews for the purpose of worship or religious study.
  • noun The Jewish religion as organized or typified in local congregations.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An organization of the Jews for the purposes of religious instruction and worship.
  • noun The building where such instruction and worship are maintained.
  • noun An assembly of Jewish Christians in the early church.
  • noun Hence Any assembly of men.

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

  • noun A congregation or assembly of Jews met for the purpose of worship, or the performance of religious rites.
  • noun The building or place appropriated to the religious worship of the Jews.
  • noun The council of, probably, 120 members among the Jews, first appointed after the return from the Babylonish captivity; -- called also the Great Synagogue, and sometimes, though erroneously, the Sanhedrin.
  • noun A congregation in the early Christian church.
  • noun Obs. or R. Any assembly of men.

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

  • noun A place where Jews meet for worship.
  • noun A congregation of Jews for the purpose of worship or religious study.

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

  • noun (Judaism) the place of worship for a Jewish congregation

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old French sinagoge, from Late Latin synagōga, from Greek sunagōgē, assembly, synagogue, from sunagein, to bring together : sun-, syn- + agein, to lead; see ag- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French synagoge, from Ancient Greek συναγωγή (sunagōgē, "assembly, gathering"), from συνάγω (sunagō, "I gather together"), from σύν (sun, "with, together") + ἄγω (agō, "I lead")

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