congregation

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A group of people gathered together for a religious service.

   The priest asked the congregation to stand and sing the next hymn.

2. 2
   noun

   The group of people who regularly attend a particular church or place of worship.

   The small village church has a congregation of about fifty people.

3. 3
   noun

   Any large gathering of people in one place.

   A congregation of fans waited outside the hotel for the singer's autograph.

From Middle English congregacioun, from Old French congregacion, from Latin congregātiō, itself from congregō (“to herd into a flock”). Adopted (1520s) by the English Bible translator William Tyndale, to render the Ancient Greek ἐκκλησία (ekklēsía, “those called together, (popular) meeting”) (hence Latin ecclēsia) in his New Testament, and preferred by 16th century Reformers instead of church. By surface analysis, congregate + -ion.

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