parish

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An administrative part of a diocese that has its own church.
  2. The community attending that church; the members of the parish.
  3. An ecclesiastical society, usually not bounded by territorial limits, but composed of those persons who choose to unite under the charge of a particular priest, clergyman, or minister; also, loosely, the territory in which the members of a congregation live.
  4. In any of various countries, an administrative subdivision of an area, often of a county.
  5. A civil subdivision of a British county, often corresponding to an earlier ecclesiastical parish; a similar subdivision in Ireland.
  6. An administrative subdivision in the U.S. state of Louisiana that is equivalent to a county in other U.S. states.
verb
  1. To place (an area, or rarely a person) into one or more parishes.
  2. To visit residents of a parish.
verb
  1. Pronunciation spelling of perish, representing Mary–marry–merry merger English.
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A town and village therein, in Oswego County, New York, United States.

Pronunciation

/ˈpæɹɪʃ/ /ˈpɛɹɪʃ/ En-us-parish.ogg /ˈpaɾɪʃ/

Word forms

parish parishes paroch parishing parished

Etymology

From Middle English parisshe, from Old French paroisse (compare the obsolete variant paroch, from Anglo-Norman paroche, parosse), from Late Latin parochia, from Ancient Greek παροικία (paroikía, “a dwelling abroad”).

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