MEANING
1. People assembled to take part in a religious service or shared act of worship.
2. A local religious community whose members regularly worship together, even when not currently assembled.
3. A group of people or things assembled together, often in one place or for a shared purpose.
Use it for
describing the people attending a religious service; showing worshippers responding together; naming an audience gathered for communal prayer; describing a group listening to a sermonDistinguishes worshippers present at a service from the continuing religious community, with a separate broader gathering sense. Writing functions: Gathering and religious community.
Words that belong together
- the assembled congregation
- address the congregation
- members of the congregation
On the page
The congregation rose as the first notes of the hymn filled the hall.
At the end of the service, she waited until the congregation had left.
The congregation rented a school hall while its own building was repaired.
She had belonged to the same congregation for thirty years.
A small congregation of onlookers had formed beside the overturned cart.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- congregation
Usage notes
Countable noun: a congregation; plural congregations. American English usually treats a collective congregation as singular; British English can use singular or plural agreement according to whether the group or its members are emphasized. Register: neutral. Commonness: common in religious contexts; less common for a general gathering (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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