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basilica.

A Christian church building having a nave with a semicircular apse, side aisles, a narthex and a clerestory.

8 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/bəˈsɪlɪkə/UK
  1. A Christian church building having a nave with a semicircular apse, side aisles, a narthex and a clerestory.

  2. A Roman Catholic church or cathedral with basilican status, an honorific status granted by the pope to recognize its historical, architectural, or sacramental importance.

  3. An apartment provided in the houses of persons of importance, where assemblies were held for dispensing justice; hence, any large hall used for this purpose.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Latin basilica, from Ancient Greek βᾰσῐλῐκή (băsĭlĭkḗ), from βᾰσῐλῐκὴ στοά (băsĭlĭkḕ stoá, “royal hall”), ultimately from βασιλικός (basilikós, “royal”), from βασιλεύς (basileús, “king, chief”). Doublet of basoche.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.