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Glite Dictionary
⛪ A worship place 🤫 A secret meeting
conventicle

conventicle

9.9
A secret meeting to worship held without permission from the authorities
  • noun
  • /kənˈvɛntɪkəl/
  • Archaic
translation icon : conventículo secreto
  • They held a secret conventicle in the woods.

Examples

  • Early Protestants risked imprisonment for attending a conventicle outside the state-sanctioned churches.

  • During the persecution, villagers gathered at a conventicle deep in the forest to worship in secret.

  • The government outlawed the conventicle, fearing it would spread dissent against the established church.

  • The authorities raided the conventicle last night.

  • The secret police raided the conventicle, breaking up the unauthorized gathering of dissidents.

  • During the 17th century, many religious groups held conventicles to practice their faith away from prying eyes.

  • The small group met in a hidden place for their conventicle, discussing beliefs that were not accepted in public.

How Secret

conventicle
  • Archaic
9.9
meeting
∞ 1.0
gathering
203 1.0
assembly
162 2.5

Surface Forms

conventicle singular
conventicles plural

Morphology

conventicle = convent (semi-transparent) = convent + icle

While built from 'convent' + '-icle', the specialized/dated sense 'secret or unauthorized meeting' is historical and not directly deducible by learners from the components alone.

Etymology

Conventicle comes from the Latin root convent meaning 'coming together' and the small ending -icle, like in convent and convention, so it meant a 'small meeting'. Because many such meetings were held secretly to avoid the official church, conventicle also came to mean a secret or forbidden religious meeting.