DIOCESE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does diocese mean? 

• DIOCESE (noun)
  The noun DIOCESE has 1 sense:

1. the territorial jurisdiction of a bishop

  Familiarity information: DIOCESE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DIOCESE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The territorial jurisdiction of a bishop

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

bishopric; diocese; episcopate

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

jurisdiction (in law; the territory within which power can be exercised)

Meronyms (parts of "diocese"):

see (the seat within a bishop's diocese where his cathedral is located)

parish (the local subdivision of a diocese committed to one pastor)

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

archdiocese (the diocese of an archbishop)

eparchy; exarchate (a diocese of the Eastern Orthodox Church)

Derivation:

diocesan (belonging to or governing a diocese)

 Context examples 

That, perhaps, in short, this Prerogative Office of the diocese of Canterbury was altogether such a pestilent job, and such a pernicious absurdity, that but for its being squeezed away in a corner of St. Paul's Churchyard, which few people knew, it must have been turned completely inside out, and upside down, long ago.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A courtesy title for a person who supervises a number of local churches or a diocese, being in the Greek, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and other churches a member of the highest order of the ministry.

(Bishop, NCI Thesaurus)