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Glite Dictionary
🎶 Exit music ↩️ Moving backward 🚶‍♂️ Ceremonial exit
recessional

recessional

1 8.2
Music played or sung as people leave a church service
  • noun
  • /rɪˈsɛʃənl/
  • Jargon
translation icon : himno de salida
  • As the recessional played, the clergy gracefully exited the church.

Examples

  • Everyone stood quietly while the recessional filled the room with uplifting music.

  • The choir sang a beautiful recessional as the service came to an end.

  • We could use that as a recessional.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • The recessional at the end of the service was full of buoyancy.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • When the recessional began, his arm helped to lift her, to move her out of the pew.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • [stadium organ: "Wedding March" recessional]

    Bull Durham (1988)

  • Rose's hearing aid shrieks as the band sings out its klezmer recessional.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • The music begins again, and though we haven't practiced the recessional, I know the proper thing to do is take Jack Mac's arm and follow the bride and groom out.

    Fiction book (2000)

Synonyms

recessional march
vsrecessional
  • Jargon
6.8

A piece of music that people play while they leave a formal ceremony like a wedding

is specific to religious endings where clergy and choir leave
postlude
vsrecessional
8.8

A piece of music played at the end of a religious service, often on an organ

is used while clergy and choir leave rather than as an organ solo

Antonyms

introit
  • Specialized
9.9

A short piece of music sung or played at the start of a church service

Compounds

recessional march
  • Jargon
6.8

A piece of music that people play while they leave a formal ceremony like a wedding

How Solemn

dirge
8 8.2
to hymn
5.9
recessional
  • Jargon
1 8.2
anthem
109 3.5
tune
327 1.0

Surface Forms

recessional singular
recessionals plural

Morphology

recessional = recessional (semi-transparent) = recess + ional

The noun is a converted use of the adjective 'recessional', but the church-music meaning is a specialized conventionalized sense.

Etymology

The word recessional comes from re- 'back' and cedere 'to go', like in recede. A helpful way to remember the musical sense is that a recessional is the piece you play as people 'go back' or leave the church at the end of the service.