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Church of England

Church of England

11 3.7
The national Christian church in England led by the Archbishop of Canterbury with the British monarch as its head
  • proper noun
translation icon : Iglesia de Inglaterra
  • So here in Britain we have the Church of England, the official established state church, which opposes equal marriage.
  • minister of the Church of England
  • Church of England leaders
  • Church of England's reform effort

Like maybe you want to sort of get the Church of England out of the House of Lords.

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Examples

  • The Supreme Governor of the Church of England, she drew on her deep faith.

  • She'd been raised in the Church of England, in a calm, upper-middle-class family.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • Do you mean the Church of England?

  • We came to seek freedom from the Church of England.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • In 1985, the Church of England published two significant reports.

    Academic text (2017)
  • I'm from the Protestant Church of England.

  • For all its faults, the Church of England remains expert at such events.

    Blog text (9)
  • In this position, the Church of England could accumulate power and define cultural traditions.

    Academic text (2002)
  • We believe that, for the most part, the clergy of the Church of England have tried faithfully to preserve their tradition.

    Academic text (2002)
  • By some estimates, more than 25 million people in England identify with the Church of England as their denomination.

Synonyms

Anglican Church
vsChurch of England
4 4.1

A Christian church that began in England with the British king or queen as its head

is the specific national body centered in England rather than the global group

Surface Forms

Morphology

church + of + England

The meaning 'the (national) Christian church associated with England' is directly and compositionally derived from 'church' + 'of' + 'England' — a B1 learner who knows those words will readily infer it refers to the church belonging to or based in England. The genitive/association pattern 'X of Y' is cross-linguistically common and follows straightforward English composition, so this expression is transparent to learners who know the constituents.

Etymology

Church of England comes from the 1500s when King Henry VIII set up a separate church for the country; it literally means the church of England because the English king or queen became its head. So, Church of England now means the main Christian church in England, led by the British king or queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury.