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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

parish.

An administrative part of a diocese that has its own church.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈpæɹɪʃ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpæɹɪʃ/General-American/ˈpɛɹɪʃ//ˈpaɾɪʃ/Scotland, Wales
  1. An administrative part of a diocese that has its own church.

  2. The community attending that church; the members of the parish.

  3. An ecclesiastical society, usually not bounded by territorial limits, but composed of those persons who choose to unite under the charge of a particular priest, clergyman, or minister; also, loosely, the territory in which the members of a congregation live.

    US
  4. In any of various countries, an administrative subdivision of an area, often of a county. A civil subdivision of a British county, often corresponding to an earlier ecclesiastical parish; a similar subdivision in Ireland.

  5. In any of various countries, an administrative subdivision of an area, often of a county. An administrative subdivision in the U.S. state of Louisiana that is equivalent to a county in other U.S. states.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English parisshe, from Old French paroisse (compare the obsolete variant paroch, from Anglo-Norman paroche, parosse), from Late Latin parochia, from Ancient Greek παροικία (paroikía, “a dwelling abroad”).

verb/ˈpæɹɪʃ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpæɹɪʃ/General-American/ˈpɛɹɪʃ//ˈpaɾɪʃ/Scotland, Wales
  1. To place (an area, or rarely a person) into one or more parishes.

    transitive
  2. To visit residents of a parish.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English parisshe, from Old French paroisse (compare the obsolete variant paroch, from Anglo-Norman paroche, parosse), from Late Latin parochia, from Ancient Greek παροικία (paroikía, “a dwelling abroad”).

verb/ˈpæɹɪʃ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpæɹɪʃ/General-American/ˈpɛɹɪʃ//ˈpaɾɪʃ/Scotland, Wales
  1. Pronunciation spelling of perish, representing Mary–marry–merry merger English.

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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.