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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

parochial.

Pertaining to a parish.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/pəˈɹəʊkɪəl/Received-Pronunciation/pəˈɹoʊki.əl/US

  1. Pertaining to a parish.

    The parish council handles parochial affairs. [civil context]
    The rector and vestry handle parochial affairs. [church context]

  2. Characterized by an unsophisticated focus on local concerns to the exclusion of wider contexts; elementary in scope or outlook.

    derogatory
    The use of simple, primary colors in the painting gave it a parochial feel.
    Some people in the United States have been accused of taking a parochial view, of not being interested in international matters.
Where this word comes from

From Anglo-Norman parochial and its source Late Latin parochialis, an alteration of paroecialis (“of a church province”), from paroecia, from Hellenistic Greek παροικία (paroikía, “stay in a foreign land”), later “community, diocese”, from Ancient Greek πάροικος (pároikos, “neighbouring, neighbour”), from παρα- (para-) + οἶκος (oîkos, “house”).

noun/pəˈɹəʊkɪəl/Received-Pronunciation/pəˈɹoʊki.əl/US

  1. A parochial individual.

Where this word comes from

From Anglo-Norman parochial and its source Late Latin parochialis, an alteration of paroecialis (“of a church province”), from paroecia, from Hellenistic Greek παροικία (paroikía, “stay in a foreign land”), later “community, diocese”, from Ancient Greek πάροικος (pároikos, “neighbouring, neighbour”), from παρα- (para-) + οἶκος (oîkos, “house”).

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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.