clergy

UK/ˈklɜːdʒi/US/ˈklɝd͡ʒi/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,494 of 15,258mostly written

The clergy are the priests and ministers of a church taken together. Members of the clergy.

It is a plural noun with no singular, so one of them is a clergyman or a member of the clergy. The word once meant learned men generally, since for centuries they were the only people who could read.

Definitions of clergy

1nounclergyThe priests and ministers of a church taken together.B2+
“The clergy of three parishes met once a month.”

clergy is a group.

Where it comes from

Old French clergie comes from Latin clericus, a clerk or cleric, from Greek kleros, a lot or inheritance.

Proto-Indo-European
*kelh₂-
Latin
clēricātus
Old French
clergie — learned men
Middle English
clergie
English, today
clergy

From Middle English clergie (attested in the 13th century), from Old French clergie (“learned men”), from Latin clēricātus, from Latin clēricus (“one ordained for religious services”), from Ancient Greek κληρικός (“of the clergy”). Equivalent to cleric + -ate.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

clergy in the wild

Reports of the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy and members of religious orders have been documented in numerous countries.
Catholic Church sexual abuse cases
Plante, have found no evidence that Catholic clergy abuse minors at higher rates than other adult men or clergy from other traditions.
Catholic Church sexual abuse cases
Vows of celibacy are generally required for monks and nuns in Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and other religions, but often not for other clergy.
Clerical celibacy
Within the Catholic Church, clerical celibacy is mandated for all clergy in the Latin Church except in the permanent diaconate.
Clerical celibacy
In the 11th century, some churches required clergy thus living together to adopt the rule first proposed by Saint Augustine that they renounce private wealth.
Canon (title)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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