chaplain
noun
Simple meaning
A member of a religious body who is officially assigned to provide pastoral care at an institution, group, private chapel.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
chapluhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtʃæplən
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 member of a religious body who is (often, although not always, of the clergy) officially assigned to provide pastoral care at an institution, group, private chapel, etc.
A person without religious affiliation who carries out similar duties in a secular context.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A member of a religious body who is (often, although not always, of the clergy) officially assigned to provide pastoral care at an institution, group, private chapel, etc.
Used this way, chaplain 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
- Official and authoritative
- 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.
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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.
A chaplain in a hospital.
A chaplain in one of the military services.
A chaplain in a prison.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The position of chaplain.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.