Chancel

Quick meaning: Chancel is a noun meaning The space around the altar in a church or cathedral, often enclosed, for use by the clergy and the choir. In medieval cathedrals the chancel was usually enclosed or blocked off from the nave by an altar screen.

Meaning

The space around the altar in a church or cathedral, often enclosed, for use by the clergy and the choir. In medieval cathedrals the chancel was usually enclosed or blocked off from the nave by an altar screen.

Example Sentences

Holonyms: church, cathedral

Near-synonyms: presbytery, sanctuary, apse (all broadly synonymous)

The Citizens in their rage, imagining that euery poſt in the Churche had bin one of yᵉ Souldyers, ſhot habbe or nabbe at randon^([sic – meaning random]) uppe to the Roode lofte, and to the Chancell, leauing ſome of theyr arrowes ſticking in the Images.

Hester Earle and Violet Wayne were moving about the aisle with bundles of wheat-ears and streamers of ivy, for the harvest thanksgiving was shortly to be celebrated, while the vicar stood waiting for their directions on the chancel steps with a great handful of crimson gladioli.

Word Forms

• chancels
• chauncel

Synonyms for chancel

Depending on context, synonyms include presbytery, sanctuary, bema.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include bema, sanctuary, presbytery, antechoir, stall, altar.

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