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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

lavabo.

A ritual involving the washing of one's hands at a church's offertory before handling the Eucharist.

6 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ləˈveɪbəʊ/UK
  1. A ritual involving the washing of one's hands at a church's offertory before handling the Eucharist.

  2. The small towel used to dry the priest's hands following the ritual.

  3. A washbasin, particularly (Christianity) the one in a church used in the ritual.

  4. A trough used for washing at some medieval monasteries.

  5. A lavatory: a room used for urination and defecation.

    euphemistic · humorous
Where this word comes from

From the Christian ritual, which was traditionally accompanied in Catholicism by a recitation of Psalm 25:6 (Psalm 26:6, in the Hebrew and in most modern translations) which in Latin begins with the word lavābō (“I will wash”). The sense of "room with a toilet" developed under the influence of lavatory and lav.

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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.