christendom
noun
Simple meaning
The collective body of Christians throughout the world and history.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
krisuhnduhmSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɹɪsəndəm
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
The collective body of Christians throughout the world and history (found predominantly in Europe and the Americas and Australia)
“For a thousand years the Roman Catholic Church was the principal church of Christendom.”
The Christian world; Christ's Church on Earth.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The collective body of Christians throughout the world and history (found predominantly in Europe and the Americas and Australia)
Used this way, christendom is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in historical writing contexts.
“For a thousand years the Roman Catholic Church was the principal church of Christendom.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Historical writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use christendom
- “For a thousand years the Roman Catholic Church was the principal church of Christendom.”noun
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: collective body of Christians throughout the world and history (found predominantly in Europe and the Americas and Australia)
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “christendom” 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.