chalice
noun
Simple meaning
A large drinking cup, often having a stem and base and used usually for formal occasions and religious ceremonies.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
chalisSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtʃælɪs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A large drinking cup, often having a stem and base and used especially for formal occasions and religious ceremonies.
A kind of water-cooled pipe for smoking cannabis.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A large drinking cup, often having a stem and base and used especially for formal occasions and religious ceremonies.
Used this way, chalice is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Formal and ceremonial
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Mexican evergreen climbing plant having large solitary funnel-shaped fragrant yellow flowers with purple-brown ridges in the throat.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: large drinking cup
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “chalice” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.