aspergillum.

A handled brush or perforated implement used to sprinkle holy water during religious rites.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• hold an aspergillum
• dip an aspergillum
• silver aspergillum

On the page

The priest dipped the aspergillum and scattered droplets across the sealed doorway.

Usage notes

Primary category: horror / gothic literary. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: Singular aspergillum; plural aspergilla or aspergillums. Commonness: uncommon (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: Handled brush or perforated container for sprinkling holy water. Plural aspergilla or aspergillums. Unrelated sponge binomial is not another common-noun sense. Individual writer usefulness checked for a distinct physical, ritual, facial or acoustic function. Definitions/examples are original; genre suitability is not an inherent emotional rating. Collins also verifies aspersoir as an alternate name; alias retained, not a second entry. Writing functions: precise physical or ritual description, gothic scene construction.