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liturgy

UK/ˈlɪtəd͡ʒi/US/ˈlɪtɚd͡ʒi/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #15,095 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: liturgies

A liturgy is the set form of a public religious service. Follow the liturgy.

Its fixedness is the point, since everybody knows what comes next and can join in. A liturgy that is changed causes more argument than almost anything else in a church.

Liubomir G · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of liturgy

  1. 1nounliturgyThe set form of a public religious service.C2

    “The liturgy had not changed in three hundred years.”

liturgy is a form.

Where it comes from

Greek leitourgia, public work, from laos, the people, plus ergon, work; it first meant a public duty paid for by a citizen.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *werǵ-

  2. Ancient Greek

    λειτουργία

  3. Latin

    liturgia

  4. Middle French

    liturgie

  5. English, today

    liturgy

Built from

  • λαός · Ancient Greek — people
  • ἔργον · Ancient Greek — work

From Middle French liturgie, from Latin liturgia, from Ancient Greek λειτουργία, from λειτ-, from λαός (“people”) + -ουργός, from ἔργον (“work”) (the public work of the people done on behalf of the people).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

liturgy in the wild

  • Technically speaking, liturgy forms a subset of ritual.

    Liturgy

  • According to Eastern tradition and belief, the liturgy's roots go back to the adaptation of Jewish liturgy by Early Christians.

    Divine Liturgy

  • The Liturgy of Saint James is a form of Christian liturgy used by some Eastern Christians of the Byzantine rite and West Syriac Rite.

    Liturgy of Saint James

  • The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church uses a reformed variant of this liturgy, omitting intercession of saints and prayer for the dead.

    Liturgy of Saint James

  • The term liturgy comes from Greek and means "public work".

    Christian liturgy

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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.