pulpit
noun
Simple meaning
A raised platform in a church, usually enclosed, where the minister or preacher stands when giving the sermon.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
puulpitSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpʊl.pɪt
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Christianitycountable
A raised platform in a church, usually enclosed, where the minister or preacher stands when giving the sermon.
Activity performed from a church pulpit, in other words, preaching, sermons, religious teaching, the preaching profession, preachers collectively or an individual preaching position; by extension: bully pulpit.
A raised desk, lectern, or platform for an orator or public speaker.
The railing at the bow of a boat, which sometimes extends past the deck. It is sometimes referred to as bow pulpit. The railing at the stern of the boat is sometimes referred to as a stern pulpit; other texts use the term pushpit.
A bow platform for harpooning.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A raised platform in a church, usually enclosed, where the minister or preacher stands when giving the sermon.
Used this way, pulpit 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
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
Nearby words
- ambo , rarer, so it draws attention
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 public office of sufficiently high rank that it provides the holder with an opportunity to speak out and be listened to on any matter.
Common American spring-flowering woodland herb having sheathing leaves and an upright club-shaped spadix with overarching green and purple spathe producing scarlet berries.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.