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mosque

UK/mɒsk/US/mɑsk/
nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,747 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: mosques

A mosque is the building where Muslims gather to pray. The local mosque, go to the mosque, a mosque with two minarets.

The minaret is the tower from which the call to prayer is made, the mihrab is the niche showing the direction of Mecca, and worshippers wash before praying and remove their shoes. Friday midday prayer is the main congregational one. Note masjid, the Arabic word, used in many English-speaking Muslim communities; and imam, the person who leads the prayer.

King Eliot · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of mosque

  1. 1nounmosqueA building where Muslims gather to pray.B1+

    “The mosque was built in about 1978 and extended twice.”

mosque is a place of worship.

Where it comes from

Arabic masjid means a place of prostration, from sajada, to bow down. The word reached English through Spanish and Italian, picking up the qu spelling on the way, which is why it looks French and is not.

  1. Arabic

    مَسْجِد

  2. Italian

    moschea

  3. Middle French

    mosquée

  4. English, today

    mosque

From Middle French mosquée, from Italian moschea, ultimately from Arabic مَسْجِد literally “place of prostration”. a doublet of masjid.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the City, Belief & Ritual

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mosque in the wild

  • A mosque ( MOSK), also called a masjid ( MASS-jid, MUSS-), is a place of worship for Muslims.

    Mosque

  • Originally, mosques were simple places of prayer for the early Muslims, and may have been open spaces rather than elaborate buildings.

    Mosque

  • Hagia Sophia, officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, is a mosque and a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey.

    Hagia Sophia

  • After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it served as a mosque, having its minarets added soon after.

    Hagia Sophia

  • After being destroyed in an earthquake in 746, the mosque was rebuilt in 758 by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur.

    Al-Aqsa Mosque

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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.