parish

Historical Location
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A local church district or community area. In older English settings, a parish was an important unit of local life.

Detailed Definition
A parish is the area served by a particular church and clergy, especially in historical English contexts. In literature set in medieval or early modern England, the word often signals local religious and civic organization.
Example
Example in poetry:
“A jolly old parish clerk named Wally the wheeze” locates a character within a local church district; A parish can mean both an ecclesiastical community and a civil administrative area; “The parish bells counted rain across the graves” gives the word Gothic atmosphere; “In the parish hall, tenants planned a rent strike” brings it into contemporary community life.
Additional Notes
The word in the evidence is a historical church-district term that some readers may know only vaguely.; Found in the poem, The Miller's Tale by Richard
Other Meanings of “parish”
Also Known As
Congregation Community Parishioners Local Assembly
Skip to main content