chancel
nounUK /ˈtʃɑːnsəl/ · US /ˈt͡ʃænsəl/
Etymology From Old French chancel. Doublet of cancellus.
1
The space around the altar in a church or cathedral, often enclosed, for use by the clergy and the choir. In medieval cathedrals the chancel was usually enclosed or blocked off from the nave by an altar screen.
- Holonyms: church, cathedral
- Near-synonyms: presbytery, sanctuary, apse (all broadly synonymous)
2 more examples
- The Citizens in their rage, imagining that euery poſt in the Churche had bin one of yᵉ Souldyers, ſhot habbe or nabbe at randon^([sic – meaning random]) uppe to the Roode lofte, and to the Chancell, leauing ſome of theyr arrowes ſticking in the Images.1577, Raphaell Holinshed; Richarde Stanyhurst [i.e., Richard Stanihurst], “[The Historie of Irelande […].] The Thirde Booke of the Historie of Ireland, Comprising the Raigne of Henry the Eyght: ….”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Hunne, →OCLC, pages 77–78, column 2:
- Hester Earle and Violet Wayne were moving about the aisle with bundles of wheat-ears and streamers of ivy, for the harvest thanksgiving was shortly to be celebrated, while the vicar stood waiting for their directions on the chancel steps with a great handful of crimson gladioli.1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 20, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:
2
Broadly The entire end of the church in which the altar stands, including the apse and the ambulatory.
- Meronyms: presbytery, sanctuary, apse, ambulatory
3
A certain central portion of that end of the church, excluding the apse and the ambulatory.
- Derived terms
- chancel organ, chancel repair liability
- Related terms
- chancellor, chanceller, chancellory, chancellery