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Glite Dictionary
angelus bell

angelus bell

9.9
A bell sound in Catholic churches that calls people to say the Angelus prayer
  • noun
translation icon : campana del ángelus
  • We stopped our conversation when the Angelus bell echoed through the town, reminding us to reflect.

Examples

  • I was afraid it was the Angelus bell.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • ♪ No fife did hum ♪ Nor battle drum ♪ Did sound its dread tattoo ♪ And the Angelus bell...

    My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989)

  • At noon, the church bells rang, signaling the start of the Angelus bell for prayer.

  • Every evening, the Angelus bell chimes softly from the cathedral, inviting everyone to pray.

Synonyms

angelus
vsangelus bell
9.9

The sound of a Catholic church bell that calls people to say a short prayer

marks the beginning of the actual prayer recitation rather than only the schedule

How Loud

clang
28 3.9
to peal
1 6.4
angelus bell
9.9
to chime
61 3.0
to tinkle
15 3.9

Surface Forms

angelus bell singular
angelus bells plural

Morphology

angelus + bell

The phrase is fully compositional: 'angelus' refers to the bell-sound for the Angelus prayer and 'bell' names the ringing object, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it is the bell used to signal the Angelus. This follows a straightforward purpose/association naming pattern found cross-linguistically, making the meaning immediately derivable from the parts.

Etymology

Angelus bell comes from the old church habit of ringing a bell to call people to say the Angelus 'prayer' at morning, noon and evening. Because the bell was the clear signal to stop and pray, Angelus bell now means the bell sound that marks that short 'prayer' time.