congregation
noun
Simple meaning
A corporate body whose members gather for worship, or the members of such a body.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kahnggruhgayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kɑŋɡɹəˈɡeɪʃən
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 corporate body whose members gather for worship, or the members of such a body.
The act of congregating or collecting together.
A gathering of faithful in a temple, church, synagogue, mosque or other place of worship. It can also refer to the people who are present at a devotional service in the building, particularly in contrast to the pastor, minister, imam, rabbi etc. and/or choir, who may be seated apart from the general congregation or lead the service (notably in responsory form).
A Roman Congregation, a main department of the Vatican administration of the Catholic Church.
Any large gathering of people.
An assemblage of people or animals or things collected together
“A congregation of children pleaded for his autograph.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An assemblage of people or animals or things collected together
Used this way, congregation is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“A congregation of children pleaded for his autograph.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “congregation of …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: congregation of …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use congregation
- “A congregation of children pleaded for his autograph.”noun
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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.
An inquisition set up in Italy in 1542 to curb the number of Protestants.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Relating to or conducted or participated in by a congregation.
A Protestant denomination holding that each individual congregation should be self-governing.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: corporate body whose members gather for worship
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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.