sermon
/ˈsɝ.mən/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.59 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable."
- "January 23 1583, Edmund Spenser, letter to Walter Raleigh To some I know this methode will seem displeasaunt, which had rather have good discipline delivered plainly in way of precepts, or sermoned at large, as they use, then thus clowdily enwrapped in allegorical devises"
- "Come, sermon me no further."
Etymology
From Middle English sermoun, from Anglo-Norman sermun and/or Old French sermon, from Latin sermō, sermōnem, from Proto-Indo-European *sermō, from *ser- (“to bind”) + *-mō. Displaced native Old English wordpredicung, literally word + preaching.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsɝ.mən/
- British English: /ˈsɜː.mən/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Religion.