Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
✝️ The Christian church ⛪ A religious meeting 🏛️ Greek citizens' assembly
ecclesia

ecclesia

9.9
The main meeting of citizens in ancient Athens to debate and vote
  • noun
  • /ɪˈklɛziə/
  • Archaic
translation icon : ecclesia
  • With the Reformation broils to think about, the princes of the church had no pressing reason to study the Guelfs and Ghibellines; only the most foresightful could anticipate that a new and more powerful wave of Ghibelline politics was gathering to break over the ecclesia.

Examples

  • The Greek word is ecclesia, and that there was certainly an ecclesia before so long.

  • I think if they were shouting, and I guess they were, they were shouting all power to the ecclesia, to the assembly.

  • In ancient Athens, the ecclesia allowed citizens to debate and vote on important legislation.

  • During the ecclesia, citizens discussed laws that affected their daily lives and the future of the city.

  • The ecclesia was essential for democratic participation in the decision-making process of the city-state.

Antonyms

absence
216 2.1

A lack of someone or something that should be there

disbandment
1 7.5

Breaking up an organized group like a band or army

Surface Forms

ecclesia singular
ecclesiae plural

Etymology

Ecclesia comes from Greek parts ek- 'out' and klesia 'calling'. In some ancient Greek cities like Athens, the ecclesia was the public meeting where citizens were 'called out' to debate and vote, which is why the word means the city assembly.