CLERGY
Dictionary entry overview: What does clergy mean?
• CLERGY (noun)
The noun CLERGY has 1 sense:
1. in Christianity, clergymen collectively (as distinguished from the laity)
Familiarity information: CLERGY used as a noun is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
• CLERGY (noun)
Meaning:
In Christianity, clergymen collectively (as distinguished from the laity)
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("clergy" is a kind of...):
priesthood (the body of ordained religious practitioners)
Meronyms (members of "clergy"):
clergyman; man of the cloth; reverend (a member of the clergy and a spiritual leader of the Christian Church)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "clergy"):
pastorate (pastors collectively)
prelacy; prelature (prelates collectively)
first estate; lords spiritual (the first of the three estates of the realm; the clergy in France and the lords spiritual in Britain)
cardinalate (cardinals collectively)
Antonym:
laity (in Christianity, members of a religious community that do not have the priestly responsibilities of ordained clergy)
