CONGREGATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does congregation mean? 

• CONGREGATION (noun)
  The noun CONGREGATION has 3 senses:

1. a group of people who adhere to a common faith and habitually attend a given church

2. an assemblage of people or animals or things collected together

3. the act of congregating

  Familiarity information: CONGREGATION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONGREGATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A group of people who adhere to a common faith and habitually attend a given church

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

congregation; faithful; fold

Hypernyms ("congregation" is a kind of...):

social group (people sharing some social relation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "congregation"):

flock (a church congregation guided by a pastor)

Holonyms ("congregation" is a member of...):

denomination (a group of religious congregations having its own organization and a distinctive faith)

Derivation:

congregate (come together, usually for a purpose)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An assemblage of people or animals or things collected together

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

a great congregation of birds flew over

Hypernyms ("congregation" is a kind of...):

accumulation; aggregation; assemblage; collection (several things grouped together or considered as a whole)

Derivation:

congregate (come together, usually for a purpose)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of congregating

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

congregating; congregation

Hypernyms ("congregation" is a kind of...):

assemblage; assembly; gathering (the social act of assembling)

Derivation:

congregate (come together, usually for a purpose)

 Context examples 

Miss Murdstone was between Dora and me in the pew; but I heard her sing, and the congregation vanished.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In findings published on Friday, researchers from the University of York and Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme have mapped key habitats of the world's largest fish, the whale shark, shedding light on congregation sites that have perplexed marine biologists.

(New study of endangered whale shark youth shows vital habitat similarities, Wikinews)

Led by her, I passed from compartment to compartment, from passage to passage, of a large and irregular building; till, emerging from the total and somewhat dreary silence pervading that portion of the house we had traversed, we came upon the hum of many voices, and presently entered a wide, long room, with great deal tables, two at each end, on each of which burnt a pair of candles, and seated all round on benches, a congregation of girls of every age, from nine or ten to twenty.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It is felt that distinctness and energy may have weight in recommending the most solid truths; and besides, there is more general observation and taste, a more critical knowledge diffused than formerly; in every congregation there is a larger proportion who know a little of the matter, and who can judge and criticise.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I see him now, going away in custody, despised by the congregation.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

How can two sermons a week, even supposing them worth hearing, supposing the preacher to have the sense to prefer Blair's to his own, do all that you speak of? govern the conduct and fashion the manners of a large congregation for the rest of the week?

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Again, I see her dark eyes roll round the church when she says “miserable sinners”, as if she were calling all the congregation names.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In due time I heard the church-bells ringing, as I plodded on; and I met people who were going to church; and I passed a church or two where the congregation were inside, and the sound of singing came out into the sunshine, while the beadle sat and cooled himself in the shade of the porch, or stood beneath the yew-tree, with his hand to his forehead, glowering at me going by.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)