Dictionaries › English

ablution

Pronunciation: /əˈbluː.ʃn̩/

The English word “ablution” has 8 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Originally, the purifying of oils and other substances by emulsification with hot water; now more generally, a thorough cleansing of a precipitate or other non-dissolved substance.
  2. The act of washing or cleansing the body, or some part of it, as a religious rite.
  3. Washing oneself; bathing, cleaning oneself up.
  4. The rinsing of the priest's hand and the sacred vessel following the Communion with, depending on rite, water or a mix of it and wine, which may then be drunk by the priest.
  5. wudu, ritual washing of the limbs and head performed immediately before prayer or holding the Quran
  6. The liquid used in the cleansing or ablution.
  7. The ritual consumption by the deacon or priest of leftover sacred wine of host after the Communion.
  8. The location or building where the showers and basins are located.

Etymology

From Middle English ablucioun (“cleansing of impurities”), from Old French ablution, and its source, Late Latin ablūtiō (“a washing away”), from abluō (“wash away”), from ab- (“away”) + lavō (“wash”).

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “ablution” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.